Sen. Bill Nelson Prefers Telcos to Constituents

When I called Senator Bill Nelson's office last week, the guy on the phone assured me that Nelson would vote with Senator Dodd to eliminate telco immunity from the FISA bill. [Update: I relied on that call for this post on Feb. 1.]

That turns out to be false.

Like many of his Senate colleagues, Sen. Bill Nelson sold us out to the telcos. See the full Vote on the Dodd Amendment.

I vaguely get the politics of cowardice, although you can be damn sure I won't forget this vote (or the vote for torture, either). But I sure don't get the politics of lying to constituents.

This entry was posted in Civil Liberties. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Sen. Bill Nelson Prefers Telcos to Constituents

  1. John Flood says:

    I’m sure the response would be something along the lines, my staffer was misinformed, etc. Of course what it means is that you cannot contribute as much as a telco, unless you become a dot com billionaire.

  2. american says:

    Shut up and encrypt your commo.

  3. Peter Lederer says:

    Chris Dodd spoke eloquently to this last night on the Senate floor, for well over two hours. I wish he were still in the race.

  4. baron says:

    Yeah, when it is necessary Dood can speak reasonably even for that long as 2 hours.

  5. The lying to constituents is a simple odds game. What portion of the constituents will bother looking up the actual vote to find out that they’ve been lied to? A small enough portion of them that it’s worth the risk.

    I hope that this cynical viewpoint is wrong, but I fear it may not be.

Comments are closed.