FISA train wreck on the way...Open Left talks with ACLU.

[madfloridian]

From Matt Stoller at Open Left. I know the ACLU has been worried about this, but this post clarifies what is going on. Sounds like Congressional disorganization or perhaps unawareness. Or worse, fear of liability.

New Train Wreck Coming on FISA

I just got off the phone with Caroline Fredrickson from the ACLU, and the news is about what you'd expect if you have witnessed Democratic House behavior over the past six months. The bottom line is that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are disorganized and giving no signals to members on the FISA wiretapping expansion and retroactive immunity to telecom companies, which is going to result in horrific legislation. In the Senate, Jay Rockefeller is once again inviting Mike McConnell into closed hearings on how to fix the FISA law, and the markup is next week. There are no drafts of legislation around, which is a bad The Senate Judiciary Committee is hamstrung by Dianne Feinstein, who prevents a majority, and by the instincts of Democrat leaders who, in a conflicts between Judiciary and Intelligence, will go with Intelligence because of a perceived fear of national security weakness.

Rockefeller, in order to get something 'bipartisan' that can pass the Senate, is working with Kit Bond to draft something that can get to 60 votes. Bond of course is close to McConnell, and so it's likely that the bill coming out of the Senate Judiciary is going to contain retroactive immunity for telecom companies (thank you lobbyist Jamie Gorelick) and a permanent fix to FISA that expands executive power. Reid and Pelosi, ironically, by ordering Democrats to move quickly so as to fix the problem they caused in July, are just accelerating the process of crafting this horrendous bill. This is complicated of course by the millions that telecom companies give to members on the Hill to prevent things like net neutrality from passing, though of course here too there's no logic since much of that money goes to Republicans.

In the House, the Intelligence Committee is slightly better, but we have no drafts of legislation and it's going to be marked up next week. Conyers on Judiciary, though opposed to FISA expansion, isn't doing anything about this through his committee. The alternative to 'fixing' this legislation is to simply let the six month FISA extension of authority expire in February, and go back to the regime we had prior to August. There is literally no reason to do what the Democrats are about to do in the House and Senate.

The DCCC and DSCC need to be aware of what's going to happen when this legislation passes, which is that online fundraising is going to drop as it did in July. Only this time we're going to organize around it and try and actively seize those revenue streams to pursue primary challenges, since it's obvious that Democratic leaders are simply out to lunch.

Caroline's going to be blogging on this on Open Left.

The ACLU has been right on top of this issue since the last time. We sort of excused it then, said our Democrats got caught off guard. What say we now?

Unwarranted Betrayal

...."Think of it. Here was a Democrat-controlled Congress that vowed to hold the White House accountable for its attempts to trample on the Fourth Amendment. And now it has done just the opposite. The danger can't be overstated. President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have never hidden their disdain for the niceties of the law, nor have they ever shown any compunction about using the powers of their office to go after political opponents. And now they have the power to invade Americans' privacy with impunity. There will be no checks and balances, no reports to Congress, no accountability. The potential for abuse is frightening.

In the comments at Open Left, it appears that EFF is suing the telecoms over "the perceived liability risks are part of what's pushing action on the bill and, not surprisingly, spurring telecom lobbying to get it passed."

Fear of liability..giving up our liberties because of fear.

To those who criticize those of us who question what our party is doing in Congress right now, what is the alternative? Not questioning?

[madfloridian]

1. Guess I believe anything now.

Just found out the House condemned MoveOn as well. Our Democrats.

I guess anything is possible now.

They don't feel their base is important.

[madfloridian]

2. Kick. Will be watching for Frederickson's column at Open Left.

I think we are going to have to watch congress on this.