A Bad Law

The New York Times editorial gets it:

Here’s what happens when this irresponsible Congress railroads a profoundly important bill to serve the mindless politics of a midterm election: The Bush administration uses Republicans’ fear of losing their majority to push through ghastly ideas about antiterrorism that will make American troops less safe and do lasting damage to our 217-year-old nation of laws — while actually doing nothing to protect the nation from terrorists. Democrats betray their principles to avoid last-minute attack ads. Our democracy is the big loser.

[...]

We don’t blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans have made it clear that they’ll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.

They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

The Democrats' excuse for letting themselves get railroaded is that the law will never stand a court challenge. Sorry, but passing the buck to the Supreme Court is a rotten idea, especially given the current make-up of the court and the possibility that by the time this law makes it to the Supremes, there could be another Scalia or Thomas up there. If the law is that bad to begin with, it shouldn't be passed, and if the Democrats are afraid of being demonized by election-year terror tactics by desperate Republicans, what makes them think the voters will respect them for being spineless?