Remember the "28 Senators who Voted Against FISA BILL! ...here are the names...

[KoKo]

They Did It

by dday

So the FISA bill passed. The three amendments which would have modified the telecom immunity provision of the FISA bill were shot down, with none of them receiving more than 42 votes. That last one was the Bingaman amendment which would have stayed immunity - not eliminated it, just delayed it - until the release of an IG report which would have at least begun to explain just what happened here. And shortly after lunch, the Senate voted to immunize the Administration and their telecom partners from civil suit without even knowing what they're immunizing. Not to mention the expanded spying powers in Title I of the bill.

This was a failure and there's no getting around that. Senators Dodd and Feingold put up a great fight but they were simply outnumbered. The movement that built up around this did yeoman work but it simply wasn't enough to overcome the establishment impulse to bury the past, forget about accountability, and advance the surveillance state. Senator Reid is talking about bringing this back up before the sunset provision in 2012, but I wouldn't describe that as likely. We can push him, of course. But the damage will have been done. The Title II provision of immunity sets an extremely dangerous precedent that undermines the rule of law and expands executive power. From now on, the stated law of the land will be that corporations, small businessmen or even individuals must comply with illegal orders from the state if they are given a piece of paper telling them they must. That won't be how the statute is written, but it's undoubtedly the implication.

Just so it's kept somewhere, here are the 28 Senators who voted against the final bill.

Akaka, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Byrd, Cantwell, Cardin, Clinton, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Kerry, Klobuchar, Lautenburg, Leahy, Levin, Menendez, Murray, Reed, Reid, Sanders, Schumer, Stabenow, Tester, Wyden.

You'll notice Obama not on that list - he kept his word to work to vote to strip immunity, and he kept his word to vote for the final bill (as many have noted in the comments, he absolutely did not keep his word from the primaries to filibuster any bill that had immunity included in it). He joins Baucus, Casey, and Whitehouse as the four who voted for stripping immunity, but then for the final bill. (Come on, Whitehouse!)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/they-did-it-by-dday-so-fisa-bill-passed.html

[John Q. Citizen]

1. A majority of Dems in both houses voted against it. A minority voted with the bush administration

and the Republicans.

[Botany]

2. Almost the same shits who voted for Allito

they need gone.

[JoFerret]

5. Excellent point.

Running for office does mean compromises and blah blah. We can accept those if there has ever been evidence of standing up for what truly matters.

[mloutre]

3. For the record, he vowed to SUPPORT any filibuster against the bill.

But nobody filibustered it.

I know this is a niggling hair-splitting detail, but it's an important detail nonetheless.

I mean, facts do matter, after all.

Even small ones.

[KoKo]

4. That's true...and he voted for the bill....nothing else to say about it.

:shrug:

[arias]

6. Huh? No one COULD filibuster it with 60 proof majority.

Filibusters can't happen if at least 60 senators support the bill.

The senators that WANTED to filibuster it, led by Russ Feingold, were scrambling to try and break the 3/5 majority required to prevent a filibuster, which Senator Feingold had made clear that he would not hesitate to carry out. But the 61 senator decision was too much to overcome in such a short amount of time. Feingold had been successful in stalling for time by preventing it to go to vote last friday with a senate procedural rule utilized to delay votes going to the floor in order to buy time to rally support to defeat it.

It's highly unfortunate that Obama chose not to take a stand on an issue that clearly erodes our fourth amendment rights to privacy. He should know better, and I have no doubts that had he chose to support the amendment to limit immunity it would have succeeded in killing the bill since numerous Senators took his lead and switched positions as soon as he announced his intentions.

Leadership requires courage as well as compromise.

[Mass]

7. There was a cloture vote, which was the only way to filibuster. He voted YES on cloture.

I support Obama with enthusiasm, but the two cloture votes (on Motion to Proceed and on the bill) were what could allow to block the bill.