Good news from the House, which passed the FISA Amendments ACt with a vote of 213-197-1.

Some Blue Dogs, like Leonard Boswell, came around to vote for this Democratic legislation, a testament to Speaker Pelosi’s hard work whipping the caucus on this bill. It looks like the Democratic “no” votes were a mix of Blue Dogs and progressives; a drop froom 21 Blue Dogs saying they’ll vote against the caucus to six shows how well they were wrangled. It is also a testament to the importance of grassroots pressure, online and off, that has existed around this issue intensely for the last six months (though really going back to December 2005, when the NY Times first broke the story of the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.) Congress moved on this and developed strategies that lead towards victory. The bill goes to the Senate now, where there is still much work to do. But it’s clear, when Democrats stand on principle and defend the Constitution with their majority, it is much harder for abuses to continue.