It looks like Majority Whip Dick Durbin is telling the press that the FISA vote will be delayed until after the July 4th recess in deference to Sen. Russ Feingold. I’m also hearing that this is not yet a sure bet. If it is true then I’m happy to see Feingold get credit, but Senator Dodd and others deserve credit, too.
Part of this may be as simple as a clogged schedule in the Senate combined with Republican obstruction on the Housing and Medicare bills. But it’s also clear that the Democrats have heard loud and clear that people are not happy with the FISA bill. They are not eager to vote on it before the recess, especially if they can’t get the Housing bill done. Who wants to tell their constituents that they couldn’t do anything about the foreclosure crisis but they had time to help out the telecommunications corporations?
The best we could hope for this week was getting a delay until after the recess so we could get more organized and ramp up the pressure. They tried to ram FISA home without even giving time to the Congress to read the bill. They failed.
We have succeeded in stopping this FISA law for eight months. Maybe we can succeed for another eight. In any case, I hope the reports are correct and all hail Sens. Feingold and Dodd.
That’s fantastic.
I think we should read and discuss the bill here. Any takers?
listed here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/26/135827/968/681/542407
BooMan thanks for posting the link to Sen. Feingold’s opposition to the FISA Amendments Act. Bone chilling!
In the spirit of discussion this DK diary provides an interesting perspective from a lawyer. So it seems that the Patriot Act is the real killer of the 4th & 6th Amendment (Bill of Rights).
And so who is the real patriot. Sen. Feingold the only senator to vote against the original knee jerk Patriot Act.
I know Mike’s already posted about this, but let’s be the change we’ve been waiting for and push Obama to back down on telecom immunity
sign up here. No one else is gonna do it for you.
All hail indeed. Once again we see what standing up for basic constitutional law can accomplish, even when most “leaders” are crawling in line to kiss Bush’s ass.
Which brings me back to my eternal question: how come a guy like Feingold manages to stay wildly popular in his purple state, and Dodd in his Lieberman-loving state, by repeatedly going against the rightwing bullshit, while guys like Obama, Feinstein, Murray, and Carper, from solid blue states, can’t think of anything to do but wet their panties everytime Bush gives them an order? And how do we get more Feingolds and Dodds and fewer of ther rest?
connecticut does not love lieberman. his goose is cooked when he runs again and he knows it…
We’ll see.
He will get plenty of Republican votes. How can the Demos stop him?
For me it is very simple: GBC USA. I have decided to go back home. I have already announced to my family and friends that I will be leaving in about a year.
What really galls me is the way the press, the Blue Dogs and now Obama’s campaign (behind the scenes) frame opposition to the FISA bill as some far left cause — as if it was a plot by a bunch of quasi-Communists. Standing up for the Bill of Rights should clearly be an all-American value yet the supposedly charismatic and articulate Obama can’t manage to figure out how to defend the Constitution!
The professor of fucking Constitutional Law can’t figure out how to defend the Constitution. That’s what kills me above all.
That was exactly my first thought DaveW when this whole deal blew up last week. We know he’s not dumb and he no doubt understands the constitution a lot better than I do which leaves the question as to why he has done this and I don’t like the answer I’ve come up with.
I’m still not seeing this reported anywhere else. You?