FISA fight still on

By Libby

After the abysmal capitulation in the House, it's looking bleak for a victory on FISA but it appears all the noise we've been making will at least stall it for a little longer. Digby reports:

Senator Reid just informed his colleagues on the Senate floor that, because of all the other bills in the queue (like the housing bill, and the Iraq supplemental), FISA may not get a vote until after the July 4 holiday recess.

It may be that it will even be delayed beyond that into August with all the other pressing matters on the calendar. Read the rest of Digby's post to get a list of the ways our privacy is threatened by our complicit Congresslizards.

Meanwhile, my posting has been off on account of a perfect storm of medical problems, so let me recap a couple of related developments I didn't get to in the last couple of days. Glenn has an excellent post about the ongoing deceit coming out of the House in attempting to paint the "compromise" as some kind of victory for oversight. As always, read the whole thing, but here's a couple of key grafs.

Just as Nancy Pelosi ran to Time to justify her support for the FISA bill, Steny Hoyer yesterday spouted his justifications to The Politico and said this:

In an interview with Politico on Monday, Hoyer called the FISA legislation a "significant victory" for the Democratic Party -- one that neutralized an issue Republicans might have been able to use against Democrats in November while still, in his view, protecting the civil liberties of American citizens.

In other words, Democrats achieved a "significant victory" because -- by giving Republicans everything they demanded -- Republicans are no longer able to criticize Democrats on this issue. What a shrewd strategy: "if we comply with all their demands, then they can't criticize us for anything." That's the Democratic Party's plan for winning, according to Hoyer.

Digby again on Steny Hoyer and the Politico's fluffer of a piece they did the other day.

What a guy. Clearly, those who demand that the party should hew closer to the positions that put it in power should be happy to have such a "masterful" leader who will sell out their most cherished principles in order to make a deal with people who would like to turn the US into a police state.

Do read the whole Politico article, which doesn't bother to spend even one paragraph describing why people were opposed to the bill. For that matter it doesn't bother to tell us why the other side was so adamant that it get passed either. The fact that it wasn't some typical congressional agenda item which might naturally be "horse traded" but rather a matter of fundamental constitutional principle isn't worth mentioning. Even the fact that the whole thing stinks to high heaven of financial corruption gets no mention.

Speaking of that financial corruption here's some numbers on telecom contributions to the Congresslizards that rolled over. They average close to $10,000 each in political payola from telecom lobbyists, with Steny Hoyer coming in at $29,000 and Rahm Emanuel clocking $28,000 prior to the sellout.

Jane has the info on who to harrass. You know what to do.

Comments

[Kat]

Regarding those Dems who are willing to 'sell out their most cherished principles in order to make a deal with people who would like to turn the US into a police state'...

Digby should have clarified, they didn't sell out their principles to make a deal -- they sold them out because they thought it would help them get re-elected.

This is precisely why I told my Representative if s/he supported this FISA capitulation, come hell or high water, I'd never vote for him/her again.

My Rep. voted against it -- and then emailed me, saying:

'I believe that we as a nation are defined by our actions, not our assertions. Continuing to fund the war in Iraq, damaging our health care safety-net, and sacrificing our constitutional rights, even for compelling reasons, are all actions inconsistent with what we say America is about - peace, justice, and the rule of law.'

Ideals backed up by actions -- you can't get much better than that!

[Dan]

Good on ya Libby. Keep banging the drum.

Your medical problems aren't serious are they?

[Libby]

Kat, I have a good Rep too, but my Senators suck. I have Dole and Burr. He's not up till 2013 but she's up this year and even though I don't like Kagan much better, I'm going to make a concerted push against Liz.

Dan, thanks for the encouragement. My medical problems are not life threatening, just an irritation at this point. I will get better.