RustyGate

Yesterday, America’s Democrat-led Congress voted to put an end to the Bush spying scandal. In short, the U.S. government got caught spying on its own citizens without warrants. Of course, the telecoms companies who enabled this spying broke the law, and of course they got sued.

Of course Bush decided that since they were following his (patently illegal) executive orders, these companies should be immune from either civil or criminal liability. And of course the liberals, Obama included, shrieked blue murder. And vowed to oppose any such shielding.

Until Wednesday.

Obama’s vote in favor of a new FISA bill cemented the complete betrayal of the commitment he made back in October when seeking the Democratic nomination. Back then, Obama’s spokesman - in response to demands for a clear statement of Obama’s views on the spying controversy after he had previously given a vague and noncommittal statement - issued this emphatic vow:

To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.

But the bill today does include retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. Nonetheless, Obama voted for cloture on the bill - the exact opposition of supporting a filibuster - and then voted for the bill itself. A more complete abandonment of an unambiguous campaign promise is difficult to imagine.

So he’s not Jesus version 2.0 after all? Politicians.