Still Senator No
by dday
From what Sen. Reid's office is saying about changes in the legislative schedule, Jesse Helms finally accomplished something significant in his Senate career - his funeral tomorrow will delay the votes on FISA by one day. The votes on amendments and the final bill are now more likely to occur on Wednesday. This means one additional day for grassroots efforts to get the entire Senate on the record over whether or not they will stand with the Constitution. Blue America's tools are still active. I've been pretty pessimistic on the outcome all along, but that's no reason to stop fighting.
Meanwhile, as Marcy Wheeler reports, the Administration wants a clean bill, and would veto any effort to allow the Congress and the American people to know exactly what they would be immunizing:
As we have previously noted, any FISA modernization bill must contain effective legal protections for those companies sued because they are believed to have helped the Government prevent terrorist attacks in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.
[snip]
H.R. 6304 contains such protection, but the (Bingaman) amendment would reportedly foreclose an electronic communication service provider from receiving retroactive [immunity] until 90 days after the Inspectors General of various departments, as required by section 301 of H.R. 6304, complete a comprehensive review of, and submit a final report on, communications intelligence activities authorized by the President between September 11, 2001, and January 17, 2007. The final report is not due for a year after the enactment of the bill. Any amendment that would delay implementation of [immunity] in this manner is unacceptable. Providing prompt liability protection is critical to the national security. Accordingly, we, as well as the President's other advisors, will recommend that the President veto any bill that includes such an amendment.
Sen. Bingaman's amendment simply states that the IG report, which even Sen. Obama has claimed would allow for accountability, be given the opportunity to actually hold anyone accountable by forestalling immunity until its completion. It's as common sense a proposal as there has been in this year-long debate. Yet there will not be a hearing on it, the debate will consist of a matter of minutes, key witnesses like Mark Klein, the AT&T technician who disclosed the secret room in San Francisco where the NSA was vacuuming up all communications on its network, will never be called to testify, and the entire sordid mess will be pushed across the finish line in a day or two.
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