Lefty Hazards

One of the hazards of moving to the center at this stage of the campaign is creating tensions with the base. Barack doesn't want his liberal gut to be revealed, but the liberals who launched him aren't eager to be abandoned. Consider this letter that moveon.org sent out to it's members.

On Friday, House Democrats caved to the Bush administration and passed a bill giving a get-out-of-jail-free card to phone companies that helped Bush illegally spy on innocent Americans.

Today, that measure is being taken up in the Senate. What will Barack do?

Senator Russ Feingold says the "deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation." Barack Obama announced his partial support for the bill, but said, "It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses."

But the folks at moveon.org want more than 'work' from Barack. They know this is something that Barack doesn't do that much of - especially if it means creating a record that he can be held accountable for.

Last year, after phone calls from MoveOn members and others, Obama went so far as to vow to "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." We need him to honor that promise.

What will Barack do! He hates this voting stuff! When he was in the state senate, this was easy. He would choose the position he likes so much when there's a tough issue.

He voted “present,” effectively sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator.

But moveon.org won't take 'present' for an answer!

Can you call Senator Obama today and tell him you're counting on him to keep his word? Ask him to block any compromise that includes immunity for phone companies that helped Bush break the law.

Obama's presidential campaign: (866) 675-2008

Fellow Democrats will try to save Barack from having to choose who to offend by splitting the bill into two pieces. That way, Barack can vote for it before he votes against it.

"I'm going to try real hard to have a separate vote on immunity,'' Reid said in an interview to be aired this weekend on Bloomberg Television. "Probably we can't take that out of the bill, but I'm going to try.''