Senate caves on FISA

August 4, 2007

It’s disappointing, but not surprising. After the president scuttled a compromise between Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and congressional Democrats, Senate Dems did what many expected they would do: they caved.

The Senate bowed to White House pressure last night and passed a Republican plan for overhauling the federal government’s terrorist surveillance laws, approving changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.

The 60 to 28 vote, which was quickly denounced by civil rights and privacy advocates, came after Democrats in the House failed to win support for more modest changes that would have required closer court supervision of government surveillance. The legislation, which is expected to go before the House today, would expand the government’s authority to intercept without a court order the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who are communicating with people overseas.

Bush is getting practically everything he asked for. Indeed, under Bush’s warrantless-search program launched in 2001, the administration could conduct oversight-free surveillance only if it suspected someone on the call was a terrorist. Under the bill passed by the Senate yesterday, that condition no longer exists.

As Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said, “If this bill becomes law, Americans who communicate with a person abroad can count on one thing: The NSA may be listening.”

As for the deal struck by Dems and McConnell, the Speaker’s office told the Washington Post, “We did everything [McConnell] wants, and now he says he doesn’t like the bill. They didn’t move the goal post; they moved the stadium.”

Harry Reid emphasized that yesterday’s measure is temporary, and that the Senate will revisit the issue in six months. That’s not exactly reassuring. For one thing, Dems will be just as fearful in February as they are now. For another, that’s six months of the administration having largely unchecked surveillance power.

One more thing. Yesterday afternoon, before the Senate vote, White House spokesperson Scott Stanzel spoke to reporters about the urgency of the situation.

MR. STANZEL: In 1978, actually, that was codified into law, that our procedures are in place —

Q Then what’s the problem?

MR. STANZEL: Because communications technologies have changed…. In 1978 you may have not been able to sit in that chair with a BlackBerry. Today you can. In 1978, you may not have been able to sit in that chair in the front row with a cell phone. Now you can. Those are changes in communications technology, and the law needs to keep up with that.

Indeed, Stanzel mentioned “1978” a total of eight times in a 19-minute press briefing.

The White House does realize that FISA has been updated 50 times, including a change just last year, since it was originally passed, doesn’t it?

It’s beyond dissapointing that the Democrats continue to cave when it really, REALLY matters…

  • “What do you think?” You can’t print what I think, even in the comments section of a blog. My only hope is that the Yearly KOS crowd is filling the ears of Democratic representatives with some wisdom they can bring to their vote later today.

    On the other hand, the media narrative remains a problem, because I haven’t seen one report on this that really laid out what the president was asking for – putting the decisions into Abu’s hands, and what the dems had offered. The MSM remains a problem in their lousy framing of their stories.

  • The LAST thing this administration needs is LESS oversight, but there we go giving it to them time and a time again…

  • Great.
    So it’s a choice between NUKES MAKE ME CREAM,
    like all Republicans and and at least Hillary on the Dem side…
    And, what?
    Ralph ‘moronic-drool/eat my own warty foot’ Nader/Ron “ze gold Standard zo ze gnomes of Zurich zhall not hold uz bach!” Paul.

    Yeah… Obama and Edwards look better every day.

  • More executive power. Less public accountability. The antithesis of representative democracy and precicely what America was founded to thwart. Why is this not treason?

  • Washington is more and more like Jonestown, Guyana drinking the kool-aid dispensed by Presidunce Shrub in his “Keep the Fear Alive” campaign. The limp-dick dems should never question why their poll numbers will be as low as the 109th CongrAss with the likes of Nancie “impeachment off the table” Pitifullosi. Will impeachment be off the table for the next president? Not f__king likely, then why for this one. It has become obvious there will never be real oversight in Washington until the next president is in the White House, assuming the Shitstain on the rug in the Oval Office is forced to leave on 21 Jan ’09.

  • Of all the things to happen in the Senate recently this has aggrevated me the most by far. What the hell is Reid and his gang thinking? Maybe there aren’t. If they can’t stand up to Shrub on behalf of the American public, then what chance do they standing up against the other enemy. The dog’s so pissed off too she walked over and kicked me this morning!

    Bad decision and day for the American public.

  • monarchists on ‘our’ side:

    Evan Bayh (Indiana); Tom Carper (Delaware); Bob Casey (Pennsylvania); Kent Conrad (North Dakota); Dianne Feinstein (California); Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i); Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); Mary Landrieu (Louisiana); Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas); Claire McCaskill (Missouri); Barbara Mikulski (Maryland); Bill Nelson (Florida); Ben Nelson (Nebraska); Mark Pryor (Arkansas); Ken Salazar (Colorado); Jim Webb (Virginia)

    bayh, salazar, feinstein — sure, what do you expect but Webb? shit, you can’t count on anyone.

  • This has nothing-I repeat nothing-to do with protecting us. The fact that the White House reneged on the original deal struck between Dems and McConnell tells us all that we need to know. This was all about sending the message that BushCo can still make the Dems cower. This is a typical bully move. Junior has just shown everyone how weak the Dems are.

    I would hope, at the very least, the House would shorten the time that this bill is in effect from 6 months to 60 days.

  • i’m curious as to why reid couldn’t marshal more votes on this. it’s sad.

    it makes the dems look like a dog that’s been beat too many times in the past, whimpering with it’s tale between its legs.

    did the provision for attorney general oversight make it through?

    and there were, what, 12 members that didn’t bother to vote?

    on a bill this important?

  • So the NSA gathers more info. But they still don’t have enough people to translate, much less organize the shit they already gather. Yeah. The Clinton Admin. was able to find out Osama bin Laden was determined to attack the US without all of this shit, so anyone who really thinks this will increase our security one iota must have serious brain damage.

    This is all about covering their asses in case something big happens. Of course, once the dust settles people won’t be satisfied with “We had the information, we just didn’t know we had it.” or, in the case of another Tim McVeigh: “Guess we need to start domestic snooping too.” But remember, in BushWorld, a half-arsed attempt and a smirk is all it takes to be the very model of great leadership.

  • Agreed, orange, but it also provides the facility to listen in on any call that originates or passes through the United States. Imagine the business advantage of being able to know about critical mergers before they take place, and being positioned to make a killing on the market because of your insider knowledge. Imagine being able to know in advance which foreign politicians were about to fall to scandal, and being able to withdraw your support, or otherwise cover up your involvement before the public got wind of it. In short, once a policy of wide-ranging domestic snooping is firmly established, it will become too useful a tool for government to ever give up. All governments are always looking for more power, and what could be more powerful than to know everyone’s secrets – in short, to have a legal mandate to do what would be a crime for any other citizen?

    The flip side of this, of course, is that anyone who feels they have private business to conduct will route their email and telephone traffic around the United States. Increasingly, the U.S. will lose international business and be left out of the loop. Just because the American electorate is powerless to reign in its rogue government doesn’t mean the rest of the world has to accept Bush as emperor.

  • Feinstein has her head stuck up Trent “run for you lives” Lott’s ass. Her’s was the 10-9 tie breaking vote that sent the court of appeals judiciary nominee Southwick the corporate racist’s name out of committee and to the senate floor for confirmation. Because Trent told her Southwick was a “nice guy who only made one mistake”. Bush is now getting closer to taking over the Judiciary branch too. This is the same Trent Lott who leads the obstructionism of Republicans in the senate who claims it’s working to keep Dems from passing any legislation. This is the same Diane Feinstein who had to have “caging” explained to her by Monica Goodling in spite of the fact that it is illegal and one of the Techniques the RNC used to suppress Democratic voters to the point there is now a restraining order on the RNC to keep them from doing it. somebody help pull her ignorant head out of Trent Lott’s butt, please.
    Dems caved in again huh? Bush bullied and blackmailed them into getting his legislation passed in 2 days in a Senate where Republicans threaten to filibuster nearly all legislation coming to it from even coming up for a vote.
    How do congressional dems ever expect anyone to have any respect for them? The Democratic leadership has no political savvy. Everywhere you look you see the same thing so who are Democratic leaders listening to? They may win elections because there is no one else to vote for and we may vote this time just to get rid of Bush(if elections are allowed ’cause god knows the Democrats in office would be 2 yrs finding out there are no more elections much less preventing that from happening) but people I know are so disgusted and discouraged with both parties they just don’t care enough to even vote. Democratic leaders are apparently too busy to see how insulting they have become.

  • Republicans are counting on exactly that reaction – that voters will become so disgusted with the Democrats for not being able to get anything done that they will vote carelessly, vote Republican in protest or not vote at all. For their part, Democrats are enabling them by taking a position that “we must cooperate, we must be bipartisan or non-partisan, or the soft-on-terror poo the Republicans are throwing at us will stick”. The Republicans will be able to say with a straight face, “we didn’t change our position at all”, because they haven’t. They’ve continued to back Bush, oppose the Democrats and inveigle for endless war. It is the Democrats who have come full circle, and now rubber-stamp everything they shrieked about only a few months ago. How is anybody going to be comfortable trusting such wafflers with power? ” We promise we’ll change things, but first we have to GET ELECTED” is not an acceptable excuse.

  • So what if they “revisit” the issue in six months! Bush will sign this bill and veto anything that attempts to stem the damage in that time. God dammit, Reid! What in the hell are you thinking???

  • What a bunch of loser’s! I am so sick of this shit. We are going no where with leadership like this. I am for giving everyone the boot and starting over. You can’t be elected without proving you have some ball’s!

  • These Senators can vote this way because of the lack of outrage among US citizens who are “just fine” with this infringement of their civil rights. They can still work, shop, and watch television. I seriously doubt many of them are any the wiser about this vote and what it could mean for their rights. They NEED NSA on that wall. They WANT NSA on that wall. They will be most content if we could all just go along so we can get along, please?

  • Well, that pretty much did in the last vestiges of my support for the Dems. I’ve considered them on probation since the Military Commissions Act, and now I think they’ve violated their probation. This pretty much ends any expectations I had that they’d be of any use in rolling back the country’s slide into the authoritarian swamp. As I just finished emailing to the DNC, they’d better stop calling me to ask for money unless they want to risk injuring their volunteer’s ears, and they’ll be extraordinarily lucky even to be able to get my votes anymore. As for Reid’s protestations that it’s only temporary, if anybody wants to bet they’re going to fix this if and when they revisit it, let me know, I’ll take your money.

  • This news really put a damper on my mood this morning; aside from the fact that I simply cannot believe the Dems have not figured out that to give this administration an inch is to give it a mile, do they also not understand that Bush clearly knows that all he has to do is wait long enough and the Dems will cave? He set it up just perfectly – sent out all the right people to make all the right noises – the scary prospect of an August attack, the fear of staying in DC, making sure it would be the Dems they would blame if anything happened – and the Dems did their best Pavlov’s dog impression.

    I think this is going to be a vote that has serious repercussions, not just for the legislators who stupidly voted for this legislation, but for the people of this country.

  • How much of this are we supposed to take?
    -Leahy whines about Gonzo and does nothing
    -the Tillman investigation goes nowhere
    -and now the senate democrats vote in more power for Bush with Gonzo oversight

    all in one week!

  • bayh, salazar, feinstein — sure, what do you expect but Webb? — benjoya, @9

    I suspected that Webb might be a one-point Dem (Iraq’s occupation, because it threatens the army); now I know for sure. And you can add the Nelson twins to your list of “no more than expected” as well as Landrieu and Casey. It’s Mikulski and McCaskill that stick in my craw.

    I guess they must have been in a hell of a hurry to get home for the August recess and be damned to the country’s needs and well-being…

  • Echoing wvng @ #2

    What I think about the recent genuflect of the capitulant, complicit Democratic majority in Congress to the anational, amoral, imperial corporatists/satanists unlawfully occupying The People’s Executive Branch cannot be expressed without spitting venom and breathing fire and having my comment rightfully deleted by CB.

    So, instead of injuring myself and others, and much gnashing of teeth, I can only say how regretful I am that the benevolent Democratic Presidential Candidates whom are also United States Senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barrack Hussein Obama, did not do everything in their power to stop this destruction of the Fourth Amendment –including the use of the filibuster. Therefore, of the few effectual powers that I possess as a citizen of the United States (while it retains some semblance of sovereignty and some hint of the days when it was a “Constitutional Republic,” and while I am not imprisoned for expressing my political dissent) –I will exercise my right to vote. I will not cast my vote for Clinton or Obama in the primaries or in the general election.

    Instead, I will cast my vote for a Presidential candidate that seems concerned that our “Constitutional Republic” is being destroyed from within. I will cast my vote for one of the Presidential candidates taking action in their campaigns and in their positions of power, respectively, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States –in the same spirit and manner that a President of the United States swears his or her oath to do so –Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, or Ron Paul.

    Call my vote irrelevant, call it what you will. Call me an “idiot.” Endeavor to belittle me for the honest expression of my love for this country. Blame it all on me because I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. It really does not matter what you or I think, does it? We are afforded a “choice” by the Corporate Military Industrial Media between two sides of the same coin, two management teams bidding for control of a Private Corporation making and enforcing “laws” –but to question the lack of choice is to render one’s opinion irrelevant? To take action through the revered Constitutional right to vote –to diligently address the problem that most of you would agree is a moral imperative– is to marginalize my opinion and call into question my credibility?

    Excuse me, but I refuse to participate in the self-serving, self-fulfilling cycle that spells the demise of everything that I have ever loved –the universal commonalities of all Americans, regardless of political stripe –the freedoms and rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution of 1789.

  • JKap, I understand your frustration,
    and I indeed urge you to vote accordingly.
    Kucinich and Gravel?
    Okay.

    But Ron Paul?
    Seriously?

  • About a year ago, my girlfriend came to possess the coolest little dog. A Cairn Terrier that previous to her acquiring him had spent about 4 years in a home where he was confined a great deal and treated roughly. He’s really blossomed since being out of that environment and is a spunky, proud little guy. But if you come at him from an unexpected angle or just too quickly, he reverts to shrinking into himself and grimacing in a doggy way and preparing for the worst. It doesn’t come anymore, but he’s never going to shake it.

    The Dems remind me of my girlfriend’s dog. They’re never going to forget the beating they’ve taken from ShrubCo and it’s going to affect everything they do. I’d feel sorry for them but there’s too much at stake. Their fear is killing us. They’re shrinking into themselves and trying to be small enough to avoid a direct kick is sad and pathetic but it’s even more dangerous. It’s very, very hard to have any faith in our Dem “representatives”. I have a very difficult time believing that they’ve got it in them to do the right thing(s).

    My girlfriend’s Cairn Terrier has nothing to be afraid of anymore, but he still cowers remembering the past. Dem politicians have nothing to fear but they cower as well. I don’t know what we’re going to do but I don’t think we can depend on them.

  • Sen Feinstein has lost my vote for her vote on this bill and I sent her an email and letter to back up my views. I’ve also contacted my Rep to “hang tough” and not give in to Rove’s idea that to vote agin the Admin is to be weak on terrorists. They’ve not gotten one nugget of info against the terrorists from this warrantless tapping, but I bet they’ve gotten plenty of dirt against our elected Rep and Sen.! If each of us make our views known, may be they’ll sto listening to Rove and listen to US!?
    Our country is doomed…..

  • libra said:
    “Pox on both their houses.”

    Heehh!
    Finally that is used in a proper context!

  • Echoing Anne’s comments, I think that this vote will have repercussions, and indeed will reverberate, within our country for both the legislators–especially those politicians we chose to represent us (defined ‘liberally’ as those who support the rule of law)–and we the people. It certainly should.

    My gosh. This one should have been easy. It is painful, physically and mentally, to see such a capitulation. It is both arrogant and costly for all of us that the Democrats caved–arrogant in the perception that they could not be bothered to cut short a vacation toward ensuring that those who continue to lie, misrepresent, and obfuscate regarding matters of law and legitimate oversight are not granted with additional powers that have clear and present concerns to civil liberties–and costly, in terms of giving in to an Administration with a sub-30% approval rating, and doing so with an appearance of such clear submission.

    By the time we get people in office who will support the rule of law–if we can, in time–let’s hope that our country isn’t too far gone, wherein it resembles and embodies even less what it should, and the reason we left England (it was literally King George then–how soon it seems we forget)–to escape Monarchy, and to form a more perfect union, is lost to time.

  • Come on folks…we didn’t really believe the campaign hype of the Dems, did we? It is all one party, and it has been for some time now. Clinton I laid the foundation for a lot of this…he bombed Iraq every day for the duration of his administration.

    There is simply no difference between Dems and Reps, none, zero, zilch, nada. They all work for the same people and it isn’t you or i.

    But (deep sigh) it isn’t their fault. It is our fault. We let them behave this way, and now out ability to stop them is nearly gone. We vote for telegenic assholes who tell us in soundbites what they have already told us we want to hear. We the People perpetuate this farce. We the People refuse to use our inherent power to stop them. We the People are content to place the blame for shitty foreign policy on the politicians that We the People elect. Iraq is not Bush’s mess, or Congress’s mess, it is a mess of the people, for the people, and by the people.

    And until the day that we stand up, take responsibility and act like a people deserving of the heritage bestowed by the Constitution we will continue along our present path. Washington is our mess. We must clean it up…vote them all out of office.

  • I think the ’08 elections — congressional elections, that is — just got a lot more interesting, although a lot less promising.

    Incumbent Democrats — all of them — are now in trouble. Cowardice is unbecoming. And cowardice is exactly what this vote expresses. Again. Not just on the part of the Dems who voted for this constitutional outrage, but cowardice on the part of the leadership who let [time after time] let themselves get abused by a president with approval ratings in the 30s, and cowardice by the caucus in general.

    If Democrats can’t hold together on a vote like this one, none of them deserve to be returned to Washington in ’08 (or in future senatorial elections).

    No wonder the GOP is constantly able to claim the Dems are soft. They are soft, the cowards.

  • why do Dems continue to cover up the crimes of Republicans? They didn’t want to deal with a nasty impeachment while polls are so stacked in their favor? (Bush had committed a felony, until the law was changed). This spineless behavior goes back to the J Edgar Hoover days. which party was responsible for the McCarthyism of the 50’s, the bloody US coup of 1963 and ’68 which robbed us of the Kenedys and King, the greatest American visionary leaders since Lincoln? Republicans play to win and have proven that they will do anything to win-Did you see RECOUNT? Just like Julian Bond said, when it’s the ruthless versus the spineless, the ruthless win every time!

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