Blue Dog Democrats May Give Bush Victory on Spying

[babylonsister]

Blue Dog Democrats May Give Bush Victory on Spying
By Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 06 March 2008


A plan to grant legal immunity to telecommunication companies that cooperated with potentially criminal spying would pin another Bush victory on the conservative Democratic group.

Democrats in the House of Representatives - teetering on the verge of compliance with the spy power demands of the Bush administration - have devised a plan that would give the president everything he has demanded, while keeping the majority of Democrats' fingerprints off the most controversial elements of the proposed legislation.

The bill at hand is an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law intended to prevent misuse of surveillance powers by presidents in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The legislation passed the Senate with the majority of Democrats voting against it. The bill evoked heated disagreement between conservative and progressive Democrats because it would broaden presidential spy powers and would grant retroactive legal immunity for a broad range of companies that may have broken the law by participating in the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance programs.

Civil liberties groups and progressive members of Congress oppose immunity because it would cut off around 40 lawsuits against the telecoms - court cases that have been the only significant source of information about the administration's surveillance activity. However, House Democratic leaders face mounting pressure to grant telecoms immunity, from the Bush administration and from members of the Blue Dog coalition - a group of conservative Democrats who often cross the aisle to vote with Republicans on legislation framed by the Bush administration as pertaining to national security.

"A capitulation on this point {legal immunity} would destroy a small flickering flame of hope by many citizens that Congress was not entirely in the pocket of lobbyists and could on this one occasion stand firm on a point of legal principle. If the companies and the White House were acting lawfully as they insist, there is nothing to fear from judicial review. If not, it is important to establish that this was an unlawful program," constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley wrote on his web site.


more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030608R.shtml

[anniebelle]

1. Blue Dogs = DINOs. 'Nuf said.

[jimshoes]

2. For being a lame duck

the guy sure gets a lot of what he wants. Pssst, hey congress, he's at 29% approval rating.

[Echo In Light]

3. "Incompetence" = Establishment friendly phony criticism of Bushites

Is why it still previals within the public mind.

[Zodiak]

9. It's actually 19% now

He broke the 20% barrier last week.

[acmavm]

10. You're giving him an extra 10% there.

[samplegirl]

4. A big round of applause for these good people...

Here is a list of senators who voted for immunity for teleco.

Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Webb (D-VA)
Clinton (D-NY) {not voting helps the majority}

[marmar]

5. How do I hate the Blue Dogs.....Let me count the ways.

What worthless sacks of mierda! With Dems like these..... :mad:

[KharmaTrain]

6. Well...

Now how does a bomb going off in Times Square that will now be shown over and over fit into this picture?

What's interesting is the report I saw the other day that there still is no agreement in the House conference and a source who said that this game could go on past the elections (fine with me!).

As said in another thread...let's see how this regime plays out the bombing. Will they use it as a hammer to say "see..." and force House Democrats to fear an electoral backlash if they don't roll over on this and other games booooshieworld is sure to try to play this year.

In the meantime I hope one of these suits gets into a courtroom and the issue is forced there...then it's too late for this regime.

[ThomWV]

7. I Think We Are Going To Win On This One

Hoyer and Pelosi have showed no sign of caving, and Hoyer and Conyers are on the 'negotiating team' on this one and both of them are on the right side of the immunity issue. Plus there is one more thing that for reasons that I simply can not fathom gets no attention what so ever, and that is the Exclusivity issue. It is as important as the Immunity quesiton. Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi are very much concerned about exclusivity and so it alone should stop the Senate Bill from being accepted.

[aquart]

8. Which is why we always have to be prepared with primary challenges.