White House officials and congressional Republicans have been in full-court-press mode for weeks now: the expiration of the poorly-named “Protect America Act” has put all of us in grave danger. From the president on down, the message has been as subtle as a sledgehammer: Dems have made it harder to monitor terrorists, and easier for us to get attacked. As Bush said at a press conference this week, the expiration of the PAA “is dangerous for the security of the country, just dangerous.”
And yet, it’s increasingly difficult to take the fear mongering seriously when those in the know seem unfazed by the PAA’s lapse.
The warnings from President Bush and his senior aides have grown more urgent over the last few weeks, now that Congress has let a temporary wiretapping law expire. But there is little sign of anxiety among many intelligence and phone industry officials.
At the Pentagon and the military’s Central Command, senior officials gave no indication of any heightened concern about the lapsing of the law. In Congress, staff members with access to updated briefings said they had not been given any specific information about lost intelligence that might endanger national security. And in the telecommunications industry, executives said it was largely business as usual. […]
Even with the expiration, most operations have continued uninterrupted. The surveillance orders authorizing the government to spy on terrorism targets are good for a year. If the impasse in Congress goes on for months — which few expect to happen — the problem might begin to have a real impact on security operations, officials said.
But so far, “it’s hard to believe anyone’s feeling it yet,” said a lawyer for the telecommunications industry who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. “No one’s wringing their hands about what’s going to happen this week or next week.”
Why, it’s almost as if Republicans were exaggerating the significance of this for political effect. Perish the thought.
As for events on the Hill, Republicans seem largely disinterested in keeping the PAA provisions in place while the debate continues.
Challenging Bush and the GOP to hold true to their rhetoric, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a bill [yesterday] to extend the PAA for 30 days while negotiations between the House and Senate proceed:
“As we move forward, there is no reason not to extend the Protect America Act to ensure that there are no gaps in our intelligence gathering capabilities. Even Admiral McConnell, the Director of national Intelligence, has testified that such an extension would be valuable. But the President threatens to veto an extension, and our Republican colleagues continue, inexplicably, to oppose it.”
Predictably, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) objected to Reid’s unanimous consent motion, effectively rejecting the extension.
I certainly understand the politics. Republicans want to pressure House Dems, and desperately want something to complain about. A 30-day extension of what the Bush administration wants takes away the GOP’s cudgel. I get it.
But it’s hard to argue, simultaneously, that we’re all facing an imminent threat if Republicans aren’t at all interested in a 30-day extension of what they say they want. If it were really a matter of life and death, they’d jump at the chance, wouldn’t they? The extension, by their logic, could save untold lives.
The answer, obviously, is that the danger must not be nearly as great as they want people to believe. That, or the political benefits far outweigh the terrorist threat.