Let's quickly look at Joe Klein's motivations for his tragically wrong piece on Dems FISA stance:

Unfortunately, Speaker Nancy Pelosi quashed the House Intelligence Committee's bipartisan effort and supported a Democratic bill that — Limbaugh is salivating — House Republicans believe would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target's calls to be approved by the FISA court, an institution founded to protect the rights of U.S. citizens only.

Democrats and "liberal" pundits like Joe Klein live in perpetual fear of Republican criticism. They have been so beaten down after a generation of right-wing noise machine attacks, that their entire existence is predicated on avoiding being whipped by Rush and his right-wing colleagues.

Have you ever seen or read a Republican say, "Republicans shouldn't do X because Daily Kos will attack us!" And in case that sounds too self-aggrandizing, replace "Daily Kos" with "Alan Colmes" or "Joe Klein" or "Air America" or whatever. Have you ever seen that happen? Once?

Of course not. Republicans don't live in fear of what the other side will say. They focus on what they think is right or in their self-interest. The reaction of the opposition never enters their calculations.

If only Democrats and its Joe Kleins weren't so fearful. They're terrified! For a gang that likes to talk about "looking tough", they sure piddle in their pants on a regular basis.

Heck, Democrats can't even muster enough balls to criticize Klein himself for his column. As outraged as they claim they are in private, in public they are meek as mice, afraid to disturb the great and powerful media. While the GOP consistently beat the crap out of journalists with whines of bias, Democrats wag their tails helpfully on the side, desperate for a morsel. Not a morsel, but any crumbs those reporters would deign to throw their way. It's the reason many Democrats were (and some still are) horrified at the cancellation of the Fox News debate thanks to our activism. To them, pissing off the media -- even the right-wing partisan kind -- will, you got it, lead them to criticize them.

Yesterday we actually had a small break in the dam, when Rep. Rush Holt took to the Huffington Post to school Klein on his stupidity. But he was but a lonely voice. Rather than slam Klein around to teach him a lesson (the way the Right-wing has done to Klein, with marvelous results), they beg for his affections like beaten puppies.

In his new memoir "No Excuses," veteran Democratic consultant Robert Shrum says Time columnist Joe Klein doubled as a "sometime adviser," and that the Massachusetts senator "craved his approval." Klein "would chastise Kerry on the phone when he didn't like a speech, counseling both Kerry and me about what the candidate should say and what our strategy should be," down to the kind of health care plan the senator should propose, Shrum writes. There were "several long evenings at Joe's house where he importuned me with his ideas for the Kerry campaign."

And then we wonder why Democrats have had such a hard time winning until we started working on our long-term spine transplant project...

Hopefully this incident accomplishes some things, like 1) show the world the sorry state of modern journalism in general, and at Time Magazine in particular, 2) show Democrats that Joe Klein is not a friend, and brings nothing to the table except what his GOP spinners tell him to write, and 3) that the best way to win the media wars isn't to behave like a beaten puppy and beg reporters for scraps of good coverage. Nope, the best way is to forcefully demand they to do their jobs fairly and accurately.