Congressional Update: the Surveillance Bill

Two days after I expressed my doubts that much could be expected from Congress, the House side begged to differ, and in a big way that I hope they can make stick.

Despite Bush's generous offer to delay his upcoming jaunt to Africa so as to inspire them to vote his way, the House members voted yesterday to pack up and go home for a week's recess, thus setting the stage for the ill-considered Surveillance Act to expire tomorrow.

This is being accompanied by the expected howls of outrage from the Republicans, which the Democrats are countering with no-nonsense statements such as this one from much-maligned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

The president knows full well that he has all the authority he needs to protect the American people. President Bush tells the American people that he has nothing to offer but fear, and I'm afraid that his fearmongering of this bill is not constructive.

The press couldn't avoid picking up her allusion to Franklin Roosevelt's admonition from long ago, that "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

At the same time, despite vigorous White House objections, the House has cited two of Bush's aides for contempt of Congress over the political sacking of some Justice Dept officials, the first time that has been done in 25 years.

Bobby Fischer said that "in chess timing is everything." Maybe with the huge outpouring of votes that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are drawing on the Democratic side, the Democrats in Congress feel that the time has come, and they no longer have to take so much into account the large number of lockstep Republicans that still clog the pipes of both sections of Congress.