by Gary Gross at 10:41 AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann has an op-ed in Saturday's Strib in which she chastizes the House Democratic Leadership for letting the Protect America Act lapse. Here's how she states her case:

One of the critical tools that has allowed us to keep the homeland safe after 9/11 has been the Protect America Act. It updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to deal with new, deadly challenges in this age of terror -- enabling intelligence services to immediately listen to phone calls made between foreign terrorists.

But on Feb. 16, the Protect America Act expired -- even though the Senate voted to reauthorize it with a strong, bipartisan vote, and even though the same bipartisan support exists in the House as well.

Why, then, has it expired?

Because the House Democratic leadership has simply refused to allow a vote, knowing it will pass. In fact, 21 House Democrats wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urging her to bring the bill to the floor.

While this inaction may score cheap political points with the fringe elements of the Democratic caucus, American families are needlessly imperiled. This is not an exaggeration. This is not hyperbole. This is fact, confirmed by our intelligence community and agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats alike.

The House Democratic leadership won't pay attention to their own representatives because they're interested in having their trial lawyer friends sue the government. The reason why they want that is for the documents they hope to unearth during discovery. They're hoping they'll discover some damning document during discovery.

Meanwhile, our intelligence-gathering agencies can't operate at peak efficiency:

We are less safe today and will remain so until Congress clears up the legal uncertainty for companies that assist in collecting intelligence for the government, and until it gives explicit permission to our intelligence agencies to intercept, without a warrant, foreign communications that pass through the U.S. Here’s why:

• Intercepting terrorist communications requires the cooperation of our telecommunications companies. They’re already being sued for having cooperated with the government after 9/11. So without explicit protection for future actions (and civil liability protection for the help they provided in the past), those companies critical to collecting actionable intelligence could be sidelined in the fight.
• It has already happened, briefly. “[W]e have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to act,” Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Attorney General Michael Mukasey wrote in a letter dated Feb. 22 to Mr. Reyes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

DNI Director stated forcefully during congressional testimony that his hands were tied because of the FISA Appeals Court judge's ruling. The Protect America Act rectified that problem. Now that it's lapsed, we've returned to operating with one eye shut.

It's important to ask if there are other reasons why Ms. Pelosi wouldn't let the Senate bill come to a vote. The answer is a resounding yes. To have this bill pass over her objections would make her look weak, unable to control her own caucus. She can't offord to look weak or ineffective heading into the white-hot spotlight of the election season.

If Ms. Pelosi can't control her minions on this vote, they might well rebel on other votes, too. At some point, she'll have to give in. The telecommunications companies won't cooperate without immunity. When the first commercials get shot of Mike McConnell testifying that his hands are tied because the Protect America Act lapsed, when that commercial shows the Senate passing the PAA renewal with immunity by a 68-29 vote, the average voter won't side with Ms. Pelosi. They'll side with Mike McConnell in a heartbeat.

Rep. Bachmann is right on the money in pointing out how the Democratic leadership has failed in its primary responsibility. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Posted by: Macker at March 19, 2008 02:30 PM

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