That's what Captain Ed is reporting (H/T: Washington Post). Here's the details on the deal that Mike McConnell struck with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller:
Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted the program, according to congressional sources.Mort Kondracke just talked about Nancy Pelosi waving the white flag on ending the Iraq war. Now Democrats are waving the white flag on the FISA bill, complete with "immunity to telecommunications companies" that helped in the terrorist surveillance program.Disclosure of the deal followed a decision by House Democratic leaders to pull a competing version of the measure from the floor because they lacked the votes to prevail over Republican opponents and GOP parliamentary maneuvers.
The collapse marked the first time since Democrats took control of the chamber that a major bill was withdrawn from consideration before a scheduled vote. It was a victory for President Bush, whose aides lobbied heavily against the Democrats' bill, and an embarrassment for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had pushed for the measure's passage.
The draft Senate bill has the support of the intelligence committee's chairman, John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), and Bush's director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell. It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States.
I'm betting that people are noticing that President Bush isn't the lame duck president that the Beltway media portrayed himself as. I'm equally certain that the MoveOn.org/DailyKos crowd has noticed that their Democrats have folded like a lawn chair once President Bush turned up the heat.
Here's what Carpetbagger Report reported last week:
Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency. […]What a difference a week makes. Jay Rockefeller's agreement with Mike McConnell on the White House version of FISA reform, complete with immunity for the telecommunications companies, won't please Rep. Nadler. I'd be surprised if Carpetbagger's opinion on Democrats won't sour by day's end.A Democratic bill to be proposed on Tuesday in the House would maintain for several years the type of broad, blanket authority for N.S.A. eavesdropping that the administration secured in August for six months. […]
“Many members continue to fear that if they don’t support whatever the president asks for, they’ll be perceived as soft on terrorism,” said William Banks, a professor who specializes in terrorism and national security law at Syracuse University and who has written extensively on federal wiretapping laws.
Sounds discouraging, right? It would be, except the NYT report is misleading — and the bill isn’t nearly as dispiriting as the article would suggest.
The first clue came from Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.), one of the most reliable allies of civil liberties in Congress and one of the staunchest critics of the rushed August bill. Describing the House proposal, Nadler told the NYT, “It is not perfect, but it is a good bill. It makes huge improvements in the current law. In some respects it is better than the old FISA law.”
If Nadler’s satisfied, the bill couldn’t possibly be that bad.
The good news is that President Bush turned up the heat on this issue, meaning terrorists's communications will be intercepted and that their plots will be foiled. That's something that Americans are sure to notice and appreciate.
Here's what they're saying over at DU:
Reported on Rawstory.comRest assured that that'll be the tamest response of the day. That's positively mild compared with some of DU's past diatribes.John Byrne
"Despite an intense lobbying effort from such privacy groups, the Senate sealed an expected deal this week with President Bush to grant major telecommunications
companies...immunity from prosecution for their role in the President's warrantless eavesdropping program if they can "demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States."
The legislation finalizes the deal between Senate Democrats and the Administration over the terms of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance. It was first reported in the Washington Post."
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So, what exactly are democrats doing for us, the people?
GeminiProgressive is upset to say the least:
The Democratic Party has become a pathetic jokeThis is one of the biggest issues for Democratic activists. Now it's disappearing until 2014. Don't bet on DU or DailyKos activists taking this lightly. Bet on them going on the warpath. Expect primary challengers where possible.they have not don ONE SINGLE F-----G THING for us since being elected
Beelzebub follows up with this:
Amazing. Why f-----g bother?I can't imagine how much nastier it'll get in another hour, although I'm certain that it won't be pretty.When someone asks you "What is the difference between the two parties.", don't be annoyed with them.
what's the old saying? "Bi-partisanship is date-rape"
