Russ:

"As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have been working and will continue to work every step of the way to try to fix the badly flawed FISA bill.  I was pleased that in the Intelligence Committee markup yesterday Senator Wyden and I were able to make some improvements to the bill, including requiring FISA court orders for wiretapping U.S. citizens overseas and more meaningful oversight by Congress and the Inspector General of the new authorities.  But we still have a long way to go before this bill adequately protects the privacy of law-abiding Americans.  The bill still cedes far too much power to the executive branch, which has time and again shown it will only abuse it.  And I am deeply disappointed that it included retroactive immunity for anyone alleged to have cooperated with the Administration's illegal warrantless wiretapping program. I hope the bill will be further improved in the Judiciary Committee before it reaches the full Senate.  If the bill that ultimately reaches the Senate floor includes immunity and does not adequately protect the privacy of Americans, I will fight it vigorously with every tool at my disposal."

As the chairman of the Banking Committee, there are myriad ways that Senator Dodd can make life miserable for anyone that crosses him.

Time to call Bob Casey: he's on the banking committee.
My conversations with his office this week have been largely positive: staffers told me casey no longer supports immunity/amnesty for telecoms. I reminded them that Dodd is chair of banking and can make casey's life hell if casey doesn't support him
will call again monday.

Brendan Calling John Mccain

Thanks so much, BooMan, for this valuable, informative run-down of a not-that-well-understood process.

I appreciate that!  Hard to follow the machinations of these people!

Thanks for the concise and easy to understand rundown on this.  I have been trying to jump around the net today to get a sense of what is happening and why and you have laid it very well.  There is a lot of noisy discussion everywhere you look on this.

In our fantasy world the Dem caucus would get together and say "Damn, Chris has a good point, maybe we should consider revisiting this".  But the reality is that, while not passing this bill as it stands is indeed the "right thing to do", we know it will, in fact, eventually be passed pretty much as-is.  And it will likely include all the things this administration wants and probably some extras thrown in that they hadn't really thought of yet.  I mean, that's the image of bipartisanship the Dem leadership so badly wants on display, right?

At this point I wonder if the caucus wouldn't secretly like to throw Dodd under the bus if they could.  He is really messing with the happy face they seem to want to make with their Republican cohorts.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

Glenn Greenwald contacted Senator Reid's office and asked for Reid's view on Dodd's hold.  The response he received pretty much says it all.

As a result, I emailed Reid's office to ask if they actually intended to override and ignore Dodd's "hold" and this is the patronizing (though crystal clear) dismissal I received back as a "response" from Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley:

    Reid will work with Dodd and other Senators to correct the deep flaws in the Protect America Act.

Clearly, Reid has nothing but contempt for Dodd's principled stand, which was generated by (and in response to) the actions of tens of thousands of Americans concerned about our constitutional liberties and the rule of law. Reid is dismissively brushing that all to the side -- as usual -- to ensure the safe and smooth passage of a Draconian bill jointly demanded by the Bush administration, the telecom industry, and their lobbyists.

From the tone of the e-mail response from Reid's office, it would be hard to question Glenn's assumptions.

As a side note, AT&T is the 17th largest contributor to Harry Reid during the 2001-2006 period.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

This is a perfect example of how the Democratic party does more damage than good to the liberal cause.  I don't care about the machinations of the Senate.  I don't care about what the rules are.  I just want someone, anyone, to stand up and fight for the principle of the 4th Amendment and the rule of law.  Can we have one politician that thinks that allowing the government to spy on Americans without warrant is a big deal?  Filibuster this act, put a hold on it, go on a hunger strike, anything.  I don't care.  Come up with some political stunt.  But someone.  Please.  Someone stand up and fight for this.  Jeez.  It wouldn't take much.  Just look how some of us are applauding the rather tame "fight" Dodd is putting up.  The Democrats are ruining their image for decades on this.  I can't express the anger I now have for the Democratic party.

when i posted on dodd's threat to filibuster, i predicted a potential shitstorm, and that, in order to stick with his principled stand, dodd was going to need balls of steel the size of basketballs...

otoh, i have been waiting for a confrontation to blow the constitutional crisis out into the open... i had hoped the dems would summon the cojones to proceed with inherent contempt charges in light of the white house flipping off congressional subpoenas, but, for the congressional dem leadership, who have evidently submitted to voluntary neutering and spaying, that is not to be... too bad it has to come in the firm of in intra-party battle, but so be it... one way or another, we are way, WAY overdue in facing up to the most serious crisis that has ever faced our democratic republic...

visit my blog - http://www.takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

Ah Objects To That Characterization.

Ah am NOT Cynical.

Ah am merely observant and realistic about what Ah Sees.

(Besides, I gave up cynicism some years ago when it became obviously unsupportable as a viewpoint; reality went bad far past the ability of mere cynicism to follow.)

We are all captives of the pictures in our heads - our belief that the world which we have experienced is the world that really exists. - W. Lippman