Cheers to our Northwest Democratic senators for standing up and supporting Senator Chris Dodd's efforts to strip immunity for telecoms out of the FISA bill.
Jeers to Republican Senators Gordon Smith, Mike Crapo, and Larry Craig for siding with the Bush administration and big corporations. It's time we replaced two of these guys with Jeff Merkley and Larry LaRocco.
UPDATE: All three also voted against cloture (closing debate on the bill) and against the bill itself. Thank you, Maria, Patty, and Ron.
You have done us proud today.
Kudos also to Senator Hillary Clinton, who unlike Barack Obama, stood up for the Constitution, supporting the filibuster and opposing the bill itself.
From Clinton's statement: The legislation also makes no meaningful change to the immunity provisions. There is little disagreement that the legislation effectively grants retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies. In my judgment, immunity under these circumstances has the practical effect of shutting down a critical avenue for holding the administration accountable for its conduct.
It is precisely why I have supported efforts in the Senate to strip the bill of these provisions, both today and during previous debates on this subject. Unfortunately, these efforts have been unsuccessful.
What is more, even as we considered this legislation, the administration refused to allow the overwhelming majority of Senators to examine the warrantless wiretapping program. This made it exceedingly difficult for those Senators who are not on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees to assess the need for the operational details of the legislation, and whether greater protections are necessary. The same can be said for an assessment of the telecom immunity provisions.
On an issue of such tremendous importance to our citizens – and in particular to New Yorkers – all Senators should have been entitled to receive briefings that would have enabled them to make an informed decision about the merits of this legislation.
I cannot support this legislation when we know neither the nature of the surveillance activities authorized nor the role played by telecommunications companies granted immunity.Democrats who did not support the filibuster, and who voted for this unacceptable, un-American piece of trash legislation, are as follows: Max Baucus (Montana) Evan Bayh (Indiana) Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island) Dianne Feinstein (California) Daniel Inouye (Hawaii) Bob Casey (Pennsylvania) Herb Kohl (Wisconsin) Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) Kent Conrad (North Dakota) Thomas Carper (Delaware) Claire McCaskill (Missouri) Barbara Mikulski (Maryland) Bill Nelson (Florida) Ben Nelson (Nebraska) Barack Obama (Illinois) Mark Pryor (Arkansas) Jay Rockefeller (West Virginia) Ken Salazar (Colorado) Tim Johnson (South Dakota) Jim Webb (Virginia)Shame on each and every one of them.
UPDATE II: The AP's headline is fitting - "Senate bows to Bush."
"Cantwell, Murray, and Wyden support Dodd amendment to strip immunity"
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