We May Have Just Gotten The FISA Debate Extended

[kpete]

We May Have Just Gotten The FISA Debate Extended
by dday
Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 07:38:21 PM PDT
(the operative word here is "may". It's entirely possible that the Senate could finish all of the bills they want to push out by Friday.)

Anyone watching C-SPAN? Senator Reid just informed his colleagues that, because of all the other bills in the queue (like the housing bill, and the Iraq supplemental), FISA may not get a vote until after the July 4 holiday recess.

This is honestly the best we can hope for with this bill. Sens. Dodd, Wyden and Feingold are ready to filibuster and gamely trying to get colleagues to do the same (Sen. Dodd's speech tonight was a bravura performance), but realistically there aren't the numbers to stop cloture. However, that could change if the delay continues. And getting this to the recess means being able to get in a lot of Senator's faces on their trips back home. In addition, there's going to be a very short window in August where a ton of must-pass bills have to get through Congress, and throwing FISA in with that mess means that anything can happen.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/223033/176/554/541517

[madfloridian]

1. Then let them do it now instead of later. Just do it. Get it over with.

Get it effing over with. They have stretched this stuff out and now Hoyer has even lied about it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6408189

They are determined to pass it. Go ahead.

[liberalla]

9. No. I want them to vote later, not now. If there's a chance of pushing

this out and putting it off - I'm all for it!

I'll get over it later, if I have to. We can't give up yet.

[robinlynne]

31. yes. discuss this in february!

[think4yourself]

I hear you, sister.

I can't take this noise anymore.
Wake me when this rollercoaster ride of constant disappointment is over. Pelosi, Reid, Fitzgerald, Conyers...... Can't take it.
Be back in a couple weeks.

Peace to you all.

[think4yourself]

10. I hear you, sister.

I can't take this noise anymore.
Wake me when this rollercoaster ride of constant disappointment is over. Pelosi, Reid, Fitzgerald, Conyers...... Can't take it.
Be back in a couple weeks.

Peace to you all.

[jgraz]

11. No way -- the longer this drags out, the more time we have to mount an opposition

We can still beat this thing, thanks to Feingold and Dodd.

[Tatiana]

17. No. The milquetoast Reid is giving Feingold and Dodd a chance to show em how it's done.

And if Feingold and Dodd manage to sink this bill, I will be first in line to kick off the campaign to get them elected Majority Leader and Whip.

I can't say what a disappointment my own progressive Senator, Dick Durbin, has been on this issue. He is the Whip. It is his job to rally the troops and marshall the votes. And he has been silent with nary a statement on this issue.

[liberalla]

18. A change of leadership in the Senate would be great! as long as

we go in a more progressive direction. Same for Pelosi.

:kick:

[tavalon]

25. That's a good idea with a bandaid,

not so good an idea with this bill. Any time we get to continue to rage about this is time that the Senators have to rethink their position.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Ah there is SOME reason to hope

[madfloridian]

3. No, because they WILL pass it later.

[lonestarnot]

4. killjoy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. That is why I said SOME... not much... I am not that naive

I personally think the grand plan by the aristocracy, lets call them what they are. intend to destroy any remnants of a "democracy" and create a new police state that will make any before it a joke. And this is their intent, and at this point I don't care what party

[JDPriestly]

7. Democrats are getting far more flack from us than they ever

imagined possible. This FISA amendment is just so poorly drafted and so bad. Maybe a couple of them actually read the thing and realized that the only thing between a Bush operative and their own e-mail is the report of the Inspector General -- a presidential appointee and the Justice Department and NASA -- also Bush employees who are dependent on Bush for their jobs. And in an election year no less. Let's keep the pressure on.

[liberalla]

12. Jonathan Turley said they put it away when they see the amount

of outrage and people against it... then hoping it has died down and people have 'forgotten', they bring it back out. They (Dem leadership) want to do it fast and quietly, when people aren't looking. (from today on Randi Rhodes) We have to keep looking!

We have to keep making noise and keep applying pressure!

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Turley is right, but they will still do it, in the dead of night

when nobody is looking

[tavalon]

27. No, Turley isn't right

There is no dead of night in the post media(current internet)time. We, the internet, are the ever watchful new media and we're here 24/7.

[bdamomma]

37. that's right we (DU'ers) are quite aware of what's going on.

[orleans]

16. i'm listening to that right now. i just downloaded it. thanks. n/t

[liberalla]

19. Is that the interview where he said it was so poorly written,

it looked like it was written on the hood of a car?

I think it was Turley on RR, but he was on Countdown too...
(and John Dean was talking about it also)
Someone used that analogy.
I'm losing my mind.

[tavalon]

26. Is the whole Congress pre internet?

Don't they understand that we watch them closely these days and can mobilize immediately. They aren't under cover of the complicit media anymore. I thought McCain was seriously behind the times but it seems he wasn't the only Dunce Senator.

[bdamomma]

36. we have to keep the pressure on them and show them that

we are quite aware of what's going on. Yes, we are onto you Senators.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Call me a cynic but the war party has members on BOTH parties

and they need civil rights to go the way of the dodo

[noise]

22. One could argue they are voting

to lock in a warrantless blackmail program. To my knowledge, it makes no difference as to the actual usage of the program so long as the judge receives a letter claiming the telecom executive was told it was for national security. Dismissed suits mean there is no chance to find some evidence of politically motivated usage.

[EFerrari]

6. I'm afraid they're waiting until some of the sting wears off. n/t

[JDPriestly]

8. It isn't going to wear off. The more time people have to read

that bill, the more pressure will come to bear on Congress.

[EFerrari]

13. I hope you're right. There are so many fires going

I wonder if people have the energy to attend to this one.

[tavalon]

28. They (we) clearly do,

and their hoping that we will not notice later is borne of false hope. This is the internet age and they need to get used to it.

[crickets]

24. Agreed! -nt

[robinlynne]

33. agreed.

[bean fidhleir]

30. Yep, that's exactly it. They know that the next outrage will distract us from this one

And the one after that will distract from it, ad infinitum.

Timing is everything.

[bdamomma]

38. they can distract all they want.

we are on to them.

[robinlynne]

32. not if we act first.

[briv1016]

20. 209 Days Until Inauguration

If we can't kill this bill the next best thing is to delay it. Every day we stall this bill is one less day Bush & Co has to trample our freedoms.

[Divine Discontent]

21. hear, hear, briv1016!

exactly, any delay is good!


New Obama & Anti-McSame Items Weekly!
www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[Hubert Flottz]

23. K&R...

Russ for VP!

[bean fidhleir]

29. Delay = distraction. That's what "hearings" are all about: cool-off time

Get the peasants to focus on something else.

Delay NEVER works in our favor in something like this.

[bdamomma]

34. this is sort of good news.

[kpete]

35. update

Effectively, Reid is saying that Bush can't get his supplemental or his FISA until Reid gets his housing bill.

Now call me crazy. But I don't think Reid's speech was really a promise that we'll have another delay on FISA and one more chance to try to defeat immunity. I read this as Reid using FISA--a bill he knows will eventually pass, but one that has great support for a filibuster--to get what he needs on housing. Bush can have his supplemental and FISA so long as the one Republican hold-out on housing flips, and so long as Bush agrees to the housing bill (goddamn, I hope that Reid has determined to hold up FISA and the supplemental until he gets Bush's signature on housing). It sounds like he has even secured agreement from Dodd (the author of the housing compromise) and Feingold not to filibuster if the Senate can push through the housing bill.

So I'm not holding out great hope that we'll get a reprieve on FISA. Rather, I'm guessing this means Reid is holding the supplemental and FISA hostage to get the housing bill passed.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/25/about-reids-potential-delay/

[bdamomma]

39. I don't have too much confidence in Reid he always backs down.

[wryter2000]

40. A glimmer of hope

Thanks.

[NorthCarolina]

41. Apparently some may be wary of public opinion on FISA

they had obviously hoped they could push this through on a fast track and get it behind them, but now with all of the public uproar they will need to huddle and discuss a new tactic for pushing this legislation through the Senate in a much less transparent way.