The oddities of the Senate

For all of the Unity faction's complaints about the rancor on Capitol Hill, you never hear Bloomberg et al gush about all the obsequiousness up there. I spend way too much time watching the legislature and the extent to which they've formalized kissing each others' asses really can't be overstated.

But it's often not to the good. For the last several days, I've watched Harry Reid fall over himself praising the good and brave and just and difficult work the Senate Intelligence committee did preparing the FISA Amendments Act. At the same time he's been beseeching Republicans to grant an extension of the Protect America Act, which he unfalteringly describes as terrible legislation. But the FISA Amendments Act is by no means much better than the PAA, and in some ways it's much worse. Which sends all us spectators what we might charitably describe as "a bit of a confusing message". At the end of the day, Reid would be better positioned to get his way if he just announced that he's disappointed in the work the SIC did, accused the 13 Senators who voted that bill out of committee all of caving to the self-serving demands of the administration, and demanded that it be fairly radically amended.