Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will allow telecom immunity to come up for a floor vote.

[babylonsister]

He's a spineless, wishy-washy, weak man. :grr:


Reid Chooses Admin-Friendly Measure as Basis for Surveillance Bill
By Spencer Ackerman - December 14, 2007, 5:23PM


Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is taking an enormous amount of criticism from the left -- see Glenn Greenwald and Christy Hardin Smith, for starters -- for putting the Senate intelligence committee's version of the surveillance bill on the floor as the "base text" for a vote on Monday and offering the Senate Judiciary Committee's version as a standing amendment. In a nutshell, Judiciary's version doesn't provide retroactive telecom immunity and offers more civil-liberties protections. (TPMm homie Julian Sanchez has a good rundown of the differences at Ars Technica.)

Reid spokesman Jim Manley tells us that Reid wants both bills to contend, doesn't intend to favor one over the other, and the reason why the intelligence committee's version is the base text owes to "the order in which they considered the bill." (Intelligence marked it up before Judiciary.)

In a floor statement today, Reid said that he "personally favor{s} many of the additional protections included in the Judiciary Committee bill, and I oppose the concept of retroactive immunity in the Intelligence bill." But it would "be wrong of me to simply choose one committee's bill over the other." He added that the "consensus" emerged between himself, Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) that using intelligence's bill as the base text was the right way to go. Reid's full statement is after the jump.

more...

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004918.php#more

[LSparkle]

1. WTF! MUTINY! We need a NEW Leader in the Senate

I've tried to give Reid the benefit of the doubt that THIS IS THE LAST STRAW! What is he doing, secretly working for Romney? (OK, I know I've stepped over the line there -- sorry -- but this is an INSANE decision on his part!)

[acmavm]

3. Amazing, ain't it?? And just set you clock. The dem apologist crowd

should be here any minute to tell you what scum you are for not supporting poor Harry. But hey, I KNOW you're right. I've been saying the same shit for a LOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG time.

[blm]

4. Reid is doing what Dem POWERSTRUCTURE wants him to. The authoritarian wing

of the Dem party who has long supported BushInc's ventures of the last few decades.

Reid's making himself part of that structure.

A tool. Just like Schumer. They'll throw the left a bone every now and then, but most of us are wisening up to the dog and pony shows. We know too much.....or should know by now.

[ck4829]

2. Powers of the Senate Majority Leader (Or Floor Leader)

In the United States Senate, they are elected by their respective party conferences to serve as the chief Senate spokesmen for their parties and to manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floor_Leader

Reid does NOT have to even put this on the table, so why is he doing just that?

[Karenina]

5. SOLD DOWN THE RIVER!!!

Yet again...

[Beelzebud]

6. Remember when we were all happy to elect a Democratic majority to hold Bush accountable?

Fuck Harry Reid. This is the final straw for me.

[babylonsister]

7. Yes, I remember, we thought the worst of the nightmare was over.

Silly us.