How many balls can you drop and still be allowed to play?

There are two major items in the news this morning that got my attention. First, if the NY Times is correct, the Democrats didn't rally to the Kerry-Kennedy call for an Alito fillibuster. Instead, they scurried like rats for some holes to hide in.

Second, the Times conducted a poll on the warrantless surveillance program and found that the Democrats have once again let the Republicans frame the issue. A majority favor warrantless wiretapping to protect us from terrorists. Sixty-eight percent favor warrantless wiretapping of Americans "suspected" of terrorist ties.

The questions, of course, don't really go to the main issue. "Do you favor a president who deliberately breaks the law, when he could do the same things legally but chose not to?"

An interesting sidelight of the Times polling is that they asked the question in different ways and got markedly different answers. If they dropped the part about protecting us from terrorists from the question, a (small) majority were against warrantless wiretapping. Therein lies the problem.

The problem once again is the Democrats and the press. The Democrats sit around waiting for the polls to tell them what to do. In the meantime, the Republicans, assisted by the press, frame the issue in such a way that the polls will support whatever they do. The Democrats waiver and then give in to the Republicans once the polls are published.

When this story first broke, the Democrats should have been screaming from the rooftops about how un-American it was. Instead, they waited until they could read the lay of the land. The White House aggressively took the stage to frame the issue. Now, sadly, it's probably too late. The thuglicans have framed the issue in their favor, and the President has packed the Court in his favor.