Senate Democrats are meeting today to strategize around FISA, while negotiations take place between Senators Reid and McConnell over what the legislative calendar will look like.

Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker has a good update on the negotiations between Democratic and Republican leadership in the Senate on how to proceed with consideration of amendments to the Intel bill. Apparently the big sticking point is the Dodd/Feingold amendment to strip retroactive immunity from the SSCI bill. The Republicans don’t want to give it a vote, the Democrats do want to give it a vote.

Harry Reid has reportedly expressed a need to have Senators Clinton and Obama back in the Senate and off the campaign trail during this fight.

“I probably can’t get them back here ’til Monday, but I do need them back,” Reid said of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the two Democrats vying for their party’s presidential nomination. Other Democrats, notably Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, hit the campaign trail as a surrogate for Obama.

He said the FISA update would take one “long legislative day” but could be accomplished.

That would be true provided there is no filibuster by Senator Dodd of a bad bill that includes retroactive immunity. A filibuster would markedly prolong the process.
Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.