Justice doesn't live here anymore

The Senate just rejected the restoration of habeas corpus. 43 Senators voted against the Constitution. 43 rejected a doctrine that predates our late, lamented republic by at least a century.

To be fair, no Democrat voted the wrong way. (Joe Lieberman voted the wrong way, but he isn't even a DINO anymore.) But they have gone along with a complete re-writing of the rules of the road. If the majority needs 60 votes to get its way in the Senate, then how on earth did the Republicans get their way these last few years? They never had 60 seats. No, the Dems are now culpable, too. They allowed FISA to be gutted. They allow Iraq to fester. They surrendered the big game without firing a shot.

Here's my metaphor for the day:

The Constitution stood, bound and blindfolded, before Bush's firing squad. The call to the Democratic cavalry went out. And, lo, the cavalry rode in, at the very last minute... and shot the prisoner themselves.

I used to take the Constitution for granted, and I argued that the Bill of Rights was what really mattered, and what was most endangered. I was wrong, and it is all gone now.

I have always had some sympathy for for the libertarian viewpoint, but felt it was a viewpoint without a meaningful constituency. Now our very founding principles fall into that same category -- hardly anybody who matters gives a damn about the real intent of the framers anymore.

Don't like my metaphor? Try this one from a commenter @ Greenwald's place:

Democracy in the USA right now is in a similar condition to Norman Bates’s mother - a corpse dressed up and sat in a rocking chair in the basement, while a madman runs the family business upstairs.

No sunshine from me.

Update: What Kagro said.