Don't Confuse This for Leadership

The word is that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be present in the Senate this afternoon to vote against cloture on the SSCI bill.

Clinton's campaign told Jane Hamsher that she would be in the Senate today. Shortly after that, the Obama campaign finally announced that The Great One will be in attendance, too. Note to Obama and Obama fanboys: it's not leadership when someone else does it first.

Basically they're doing their jobs today, but making no sacrifices from a campaigning standpoint to do it because they'll both be in DC for the State of the Union. I'm sure we can expected Clinton and Obama's absenteeism when it comes to protecting the Constitution to resume promptly at the start of business tomorrow.

If Obama and Clinton wanted to actually lead on this issue, as opposed to do the minimum required to not incite a burning torch and pitchfork march on their campaign headquarters by the Democratic base, there are still ways for them to lead. From The Nation:

1. Use their influence and political capital to recruit two more votes for the Leahy bill. That's all Leahy, Feingold and Dodd need to keep their fight alive under the current rules. Obama and Clinton were endorsed by a total of seven senators who voted the wrong way last week [Actually, eight as Howie Klein notes that Bill Nelson will endorse Clinton tomorrow]. As DFA explains, "if these presidential hopefuls bring along the support of these senators, they can sustain a planned filibuster [and] defeat any cloture vote."

2. Use their influence and political capital to press Reid to run the floor for the Leahy bill, instead of the Bush-Rockefeller bill. This is is tough for several reasons, but there's an opening now that Bush has essentially slapped Reid around and drawn some rhetorical pushback.

3. Rally the Democratic Congress to confront Bush's veto threat. Send the one-month bill to his desk and let this unpopular president remind the entire country of his irresponsible, cynical approach to governing. Maybe his approval ratings will drop into the teens like his Vice President. (I personally favor this third option the least, since it involves gamesmanship instead of a long-term policy, which Leahy's bill offers.)

Or they could channel Harry Reid, complaining about Bush while essentially allowing him to win again.

Somehow I think the last line is what we'll get. But, hey, Clinton and Obama could always prove me wrong. Right? Right?