FISA Cheers and Jeers

Here's a quote that should haunt Pelosi and Hoyer for their part in this debacle:

The proposal — particularly the immunity provision — represents a major victory for the White House after months of dispute. "I think the White House got a better deal than they even they had hoped to get," said Senator Christopher Bond, the Missouri Republican who led the negotiations.

Jeers to Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and 105 Democratic representatives, including Nancy Boyda, Mike Arcuri, and Tim Mahoney, all of whom I lauded on these pages in the past week for their previous principled stances in support of the Constitution.

On the other hand, cheers to you, all the people here at Daily Kos and throughout the blogosphere who made this vote difficult for them. Your efforts--phone calling, faxing, e-mailing and face-to-face meetings made this fight last as long as it has. You raised hell with our Democratic Congress, and as a result, we've got a clear list of who is going to stand with us and with the Constitution going forward. That's valuable information.

Just to solidify what our actions have meant since last August--when they snuck through the odious Protect America Act and promised to come back with more, with telco amnesty--here's George Washington law professor Jonathon Turley on last night's Countdown.

OLBERMANN:  Have the Democrats blinked or Mr. Feingold and Mr. Leahy are going to kill this in the Senate?

TURLEY:  Well, this is more like a one-man staring contest. I mean, the Democrats never really were engaged in this. In fact, they repeatedly tried to cave in to the White House, only be stopped by civil libertarians and bloggers. And each time they would put it on the shelf, wait a few months, they did this before, reintroduced it with Jay Rockefeller‘s support, and then there was another great, you know, dustup and they pulled it back.

I think they‘re simply waiting to see if the public‘s interest will wane and we‘ll see that tomorrow, because this bill has, quite literally, no public value for citizens or civil liberties.  It is reverse engineering, though the type of thing that the Bush administration is famous for, and now the Democrats are doing—that is to change the law to conform to past conduct.

It‘s what any criminal would love to do.  You rob a bank, go to the legislature, and change the law to say that robbing banks is lawful.

Cheers as well to Chris Dodd who started all this, and Russ Feingold, who called this bill what it really is, capitulation. They need to know that we will have their backs if they try to fight this through procedural means (against the odds since Rockefeller almost certainly has his 60 vote majority to force this bill through) because they are doing the right thing, trying to protect the Constitution. They need to hear from us, as does the entire Senate.

Particularly, Barack Obama and Harry Reid need to be held to their promise to strip amnesty from the bill.

But for now, for tonight, let me reiterate my how proud I am of what you, and everyone in the blogosphere, have done to keep this issue at the fore. You've done your job as citizens of this great country.