Following up on an item from a couple of weeks ago, much to everyone’s surprise, House Democrats simply wouldn’t budge when the Bush administration demanded that Congress pass a permanent “Protect America Act” — with retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. The law expired, the president threw a fit, and lawmakers broke for a two-week spring recess.
Despite claims that congressional inaction was responsible for increased threats against Americans, and despite demands that the president would never accept a compromise on surveillance power and telecom immunity, the White House indicated recently that the Bush gang might be willing to chat with Democratic leaders after all.
Earlier this week, The Hill reported that House Republicans, who had been shouting that the sky was falling as a result of the PAA’s expiration, have apparently decided to accept the status quo and turn their attention elsewhere.
House Republicans are poised to shift their focus from national security to the economy, hoping to rally opposition to what they claim are Democratic plans to raise taxes amid the economic downturn.
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected to announce Thursday that the House GOP floor emphasis will transition away from passing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and earmark reform to “stop the tax hike.”
House Republican leaders will make their case to pass a tax bill introduced by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.). Republicans will use procedural floor tactics to force votes on Walberg’s bill, which would make the 2001 tax cuts permanent.
The Hill added that a recent NYT/CBS poll found that the economy was far and away the most important issue facing the United States, which may have contributed to the Republicans’ shift in priorities.
Given this, it’s worth pausing to wonder if House Dems just won the FISA/immunity fight.
Glenn Greenwald makes the case that Republicans failed on this one.
[Congressional Republicans] have come to accept that they are not going to win the fight any time soon and they are not getting any real political traction from their scare-mongering campaign. Other than AT&T, Verizon, Fred Hiatt and Dick Cheney, there is not — and there never was — any constituency in the U.S. demanding new warrantless eavesdropping powers and telecom amnesty. And the ongoing disclosure of still-new secret surveillance programs, combined with increasing dishonesty from the likes of Michael Mukasey and Mike McConnell, only made the prospect of GOP success here that much more unlikely.
This is the first time in a long time that right-wing fear-mongering on Terrorism hasn’t succeeded. Given that virtually everyone (including me) assumed that the Congress would ultimately enact the new FISA bill demanded by Bush, it demonstrates that smart strategies combined with intense citizen activism can succeed, even when the Establishment — its lobbyists, Congressional representatives and pundits — lines up in bipartisan fashion behind their latest measure. And it removes the Democrats’ principal excuse that they cannot resist Bush’s Terrorism demands without suffering politically.
The telecom lawsuits — which have gone quite poorly for the telecoms — have been stalled as the courts have been awaiting the outcome of Congressional efforts to bestow amnesty. Those lawsuits ought to proceed now. Additional rulings rejecting the telecoms’ claims will only further highlight the key issue here — that these telecoms systematically, deliberately, and repeatedly broke the law in how they enabled government spying on millions of their customers, and, like ever other lawbreaker, ought to be held accountable in a court of law.
Usually, in politics, we think of DC “victories” in terms of candidates and legislation that gets the most votes. But once in a while, we can also win when the other team decides to stop playing altogether.