Hillary Clinton is running for President, but right now her job is to serve as a U.S. Senator. Today, the Senate takes up the FISA Amendments Act, a bill which legalizes physical searches without a warrant, enables government to engage in unchecked electronic surveillance without the restraint of a court, much less the warrant the 4th Amendment to the Constitution demands, and makes it impossible for a court case challenging surveillance without a warrant to reach the Supreme Court. Today, it is Senator Hillary Clinton’s job to prevent this travesty of a bill from becoming law.

Will Hillary Clinton be there? She promised back in October that she would. Yesterday some people reported that Clinton would show up for her job in the Senate, but others encountered a brick wall of “no comment.”

Hillary Clinton is running for president on the premise that while others talk pretty talk, she has the guts and determination to get things done, to be involved in government, to take charge, to take action. Well, that’s nice talk about taking action, but is it just talk? Today we find out. A really involved, active, can-do, get-it-done politician shows up for her job when it matters. There’s a filibuster of the FISA Amendments Act planned for today, and in carrying out the filibuster Senator Christopher Dodd needs the support of all the senators he can muster in order to keep the filibuster going. If Dodd can’t keep the filibuster up, the FISA Amendments Act will pass the Senate and liberty in the United States will suffer another body blow.

Now’s the time, Senator Clinton. Show us that your talk about being a politician of action isn’t just another version of the speechifying talk you ridicule in others.