The Maryland primary is tomorrow, and I still don't know whether I'll vote for Ben Cardin or Kweise Mfume for Senate. To help me decide, I've been listening to their August 31st "debate" on my iPod. The candidates were cordial to each other and agreed on most issues. If anything, this was a debate between Benweise Cardfume and an absent George Bush. I was beginning to doze off, when Mfume began his answer to a civil liberties question this way:
Mfume: Any limits on civil liberties, which are not only guaranteed but protected by the Constitution of the United States, have to be done with the acquiescence and the knowledge of every branch of government. That is, if the President wants to go out and continue to wiretap innocent Americans, who are not Arab, who have not done anything wrong, who are just innocent regular people ...
Right on, Kweise. Who does Bush think he is, trampling the constitutional rights of the innocent races, like Whites and Blacks, as if we were Arab?
On the other hand, Mfume reminded me that Cardin was one of the 44 Democrats who helped Bush get his version of the PATRIOT Act renewal through the House at the end of last year (when a group of Democrats and Republicans led by Russ Feingold blocked it in the Senate.)
Perhaps I'll flip a coin.
Posted by cradle at September 11, 2006 10:29 PM