[Infowarrior] - Democrats standing up to Bush on warrantless wiretap bill

[Richard Forno]

Democrats standing up to Bush on warrantless wiretap bill
Nick Juliano
Published: Monday January 28, 2008

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Democrats_standing_up_to_Bush_on_0128.html
     

In the shadow of the president's final State of the Union address, Senate
Democrats are preparing for an 11th-hour showdown with George W. Bush and
his Republican allies in Congress over controversial surveillance
legislation.

The Senate will vote Monday at 4:30 p.m. on a GOP proposal that would cement
an expansion of the president's authority to spy on Americans and free from
legal jeopardy any telephone or Internet service provider who helped the
country's intelligence agencies to collect vast amount of data on US
citizens without a warrant. Anti-immunity activists say they expect the GOP
gambit to fail.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) successfully led an effort to block immunity in
December, just before Congress' holiday recess, and the Senate returned to
the issue last week, considering dual proposals from the Intelligence and
Judiciary committees. Last Thursday, Republicans and a dozen Democrats
blocked Judiciary's proposal to update FISA without immunity, but the GOP
then refused an agreement that would have required a mere 51-vote majority
to pass further amendments.

Republicans filed for an immediate cloture vote on the Intelligence bill,
which would preclude any amendments from being made. This angered Democrats,
and Reid, who encouraged his caucus to support a filibuster of the bill.
Reid also filed a 30-day extension of the Protect America Act, which expires
Feb. 1.

Although the Judiciary proposal failed on a 60-34 vote, the Republicans'
attempt to preclude any further amendments is expected to cost them support
from some of the Democrats who joined them in that effort. Democratic
presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL)
also have said they will vote against cloture.

Assuming cloture fails, Reid is expected to move forward with a vote on a
one-month extension to give the Senate more time to work out its
differences. President Bush has promised to veto such a bill.

After they were cowed last August into passing a temporary expansion of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that critics said did too much to
concentrate power in the hands of the executive, Congressional Democrats
have decided to hit back against the president. Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-NV) turned the tables on Bush over the weekend, saying that blame
for any gaps in the ability to collect intelligence resides at the White
House.

The Senate's debate over a long-term FISA expansion has come in fits and
starts over the last few months, since passage of the Protect America Act.
Several times the issue was scuttled after left-leaning Senators moved to
block a proposal that would grant legal immunity to telecommunications
companies that facilitated Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. Those
companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, are plaintiffs in 40 or so lawsuits
nationwide alleging they violated customers' privacy; administration critics
say the lawsuits are the only means for oversight of the wiretapping scheme
in the face of an ultra-secretive administration.

Bush has promised to veto any temporary expansion of the PAA, and the
administration hopes to use the pending deadline to force Congress into
giving into telecom immunity. The House passed an immunity-free update
months ago, and Reid has indicated he also will not budge, accusing Bush of
"simply posturing" before his final State of the Union, according to the
Politico.

"There will be no terrorism intelligence collection gap," Reid said. "But if
there is any problem, the blame will clearly and unequivocally fall where it
belongs: on President Bush and his allies in Congress."