FISA failure demonstrates why we need real progressives in Congress

I'm still mulling over the massive Democratic capitulation that enabled Bush to pass into law the most sweeping violation of Americans' privacy yet--legalizing an illegal program, and making it stronger to boot. Why did this happen? Why did Democrats in both chambers of Congress roll over and give Mr. 28% carte blanche to spy on Americans without any recourse? Why throw away all the political capital that could have been gained from opposing him? As I said in my previous post about the FISA collapse, it wasn't just Democrats who helped push this ugly bill into law--many of the supporters were newly-elected netroots Democrats, who came to Congress on a platform of change and opposing Bush on his draconian usurpation of the rule of law. It's not the first time this has happened, either...