Glenn Greenwald points out that the Republicans may be dropping FISA as an imperative issue for the remainder of the legislative session. He makes the case that the reason this happened was the strong principles shown by Democrats:

This is the first time in a long time that right-wing fear-mongering on Terrorism hasn’t succeeded. Given that virtually everyone (including me) assumed that the Congress would ultimately enact the new FISA bill demanded by Bush, it demonstrates that smart strategies combined with intense citizen activism can succeed, even when the Establishment — its lobbyists, Congressional representatives and pundits — lines up in bipartisan fashion behind their latest measure. And it removes the Democrats’ principal excuse that they cannot resist Bush’s Terrorism demands without suffering politically.

I think this is exactly right. It can be tied back to the strong grassroots pressure from blogs, the leadership by Chris Dodd, and the involvement of advocacy groups like the ACLU, EFF, and MoveOn.  Together we created the political will to defend the rule of law and stand up to the Bush administration. As a result, Democrats have possibly secured a critical victory. They just need to stick by their guns and refuse to allow a bad bill to move forward. Beyond that, they should remember the recipe that lead to their success and their support so they can continue to do the right thing legislatively and electorally in the future.