In searching for a recent post on RedState’s monumentally successful (?) fundraiser, I found this piece of stupidity from front pager Moe Lane. Lane, apparently incensed by Dodd’s references to the defense offered by Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, tries to do some logical jiu-jitsu and ends up falling flat on his face.

In case you’re wondering, it was the telecom industry that he was comparing to Nazis: amusingly, it seems to have escaped his noticed that if the telecoms are Nazis for working with the administration, then the administration must be Nazis, too – and, hey, what does Senator Chris Dodd do for a living? That’s right, he works with the administration. He’s not, say, out in the countryside shooting the military governor of Topeka and stocking up for the Liberation. He’s right there in Washington DC, implicitly supporting the Bush Regime’s claim to legitimacy! He’s just like the telecoms!

[stunned look] It’s all terrifyingly clear, now. Chris Dodd is confessing to being a Nazi!

Um, no.

It’s actually really funny that Lane thinks he’s taking Dodd down for using a poor argument in connection to Nuremberg and the defenses offered there. I doubt Lane knows that Dodd’s father, Tom Dodd, was a lead prosecutor there or that Dodd has authored a book about his father’s work at Nuremberg.

Being a member of Congress and occasionally working with the administration does not equal being a Nazi. And, if Lane was paying attention to what Dodd said and the context in which he said it, he is using his constitutionally given opportunity as a member of a co-equal branch of government to conduct oversight of the administration, with the specific goal of stopping activity that he finds reprehensible. Which, following Lane’s mistaken argument,

More importantly, working with the Bush administration isn’t the crime Dodd is accusing the telecoms of committing. He’s attacking the telecoms defense in response to the suits against them — that they were ordered to do what they did by the Bush administration and were obligated to comply. That’s the same defense defendants at Nuremberg offered and it was one that humanity and the rule of law did not look kindly upon.

OK, I’ll be honest. I got myself a serious Dodd/FISA jones going right now, so I just re-read his full speech from Friday for the umpteenth time in anticipation of him speaking again from the floor shortly. Here’s another passage that I haven’t yet pulled out, but think is a phenomenally sharp assessment of where we are and why we need clear leadership today.

No, Mr. President—we can’t go back. We can’t un-pass the Military Commissions Act. We can’t un-destroy the CIA’s interrogation tapes. We can’t un-speak Alberto Gonzales’s disgraceful testimony. We can’t un-torture Maher Arar. We can’t un-do all that this administration has done in the last six years for the cause of lawlessness and fear.

But we can do this. We can vote down this immunity. We can grab hold of the one thread left to us, and pull until the whole garment unravels. We can start here.

Why not here?

Why not today?

I urge—I strongly urge—my colleagues to oppose retroactive immunity.

I’ll be honest again: re-reading this speech and watching everything Senator Dodd has done since dropping out of the presidential campaign and returning to the Senate makes me deeply sorry that his campaign never gained traction. If this isn’t the perfect example of the clarity and leadership we need today, I don’t know what is.

This is from last Friday’s speech and Senator Dodd is expected to speak shortly, but I still think this line is worth highlighting:

The compromise between liberty and security remains a difficult one. But dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security.

And that ought to be the epitaph for this presidency: “sacrificing liberty for no apparent enhancement of security.” Worse than selling our soul—giving it away for free! [Emphasis added]

Amen, Senator.

A number of progressive activists in New York, lead by RagingGurrl and Jay Ackroyd of the NY Roots Project, put together this video, thanking Senator Chris Dodd for his work to stop retroactive immunity for big telecom companies. It’s a great show of support for one of the few real leaders we’ve seen during this fight to defend the rule of law.

This is from yesterday. Senator Chris Dodd lays into the Republican leadership for their obstructionist tactics and makes clear how unprecedented a situation the Republicans have brought us to in the Senate.

Crooks & Liars has the full video of Dodd’s speech on FISA. The text of Dodd’s prepared remarks can be read here.

Update:

Dodd’s speech is around 5,000 words long and finding one part to quote was hard, so I didn’t do it. I’ll just pull Athenae’s favored section and call it a day.

We’ve let outrage upon outrage upon outrage slide with nothing more than a promise to stop the next one.
There is only one issue here. Only one. The law issue. Attack the president’s contempt for the law at any point, and it will be wounded at all points.

That’s why I’m here today. I am speaking for the American people’s right to know what the president and the telecoms did to them. But more than that, I am speaking against the president’s conviction that he is the law. Strike it at any point, with courage, and it will wither.

That’s the big deal. That is why immunity matters—dangerous in itself, but even worse in all it represents. No more. No more. This far, Mr. President—but no further.

More and more, Americans are rejecting the false choice that has come to define this administration: security or liberty, but never, ever both.

It speaks volumes about the president’s estimation of the American people that he expects them to accept that choice.

The truth, though, is that shielding corporations from lawsuits does absolutely nothing for our security. I challenge the president to prove otherwise. I challenge him to show us how putting these companies above the law makes us safer by an iota.

That, I am convinced, he can’t do.

A-freaking-men, Senator.

Via Athenae at First Draft, here’s an excerpt from Chris Dodd’s floor speech today in opposition to the Intelligence Committee bill that explains clearly why he – and everyone who cares about the rule of law – should oppose the legislation.

Mr. President, I oppose the Intelligence bill on these five counts for the same reason I oppose retroactive immunity: because where the president’s power is strongest, the rule of law should be strongest, as well. The Intelligence Committee’s bill means more power—and less law.

It reduces court oversight nearly to the point of symbolism; it could allow the targeting of Americans on false pretences; it opens us up to new, twisted rationales for warrantless wiretapping, the very thing it ought to prevent; it could allow bulk collection, as soon as an administration has the wherewithal to build such an enormous dragnet; and it sets all of these deeply flawed provisions in stone for six years.

In sum, Mr. President, the Intelligence version is entirely too trusting a bill. With its immunity, and with its wiretapping provisions, it has a simple answer to George Bush’s “trust me”: an all-too-eager “yes!”

I leave my colleagues with a simple question: Has that trust been earned?

Keep this in mind as we fight against Republican obstructionism. The GOP has blocked efforts to make the Intel bill better. They want to keep it just as it is, expanding power for President Bush and gifting retroactive immunity to big telecom companies, in order to protect the Administration from the discovery phases of the dozens of cases against companies like AT&T and Verizon. They’d rather let the current law lapse through their obstruction than force the President to veto a bill that isn’t just so with his wishes for power and protection.

Join tens of thousands of CREDO activists and tell your senators to oppose retroactive immunity and warrantless wiretapping. Your help today can ensure that we keep moving towards good legislation on Monday.

Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

Tagaris writes about the start of the FISA debate at Open Left. He closes:

Then Chris Dodd will use his historic right as a U.S. Senator … to “talk for awhile.”

That’s in reference to Senator Dodd’s somewhat ironic, somewhat self-effacing line in his floor speech last night where he talks about his plans for today, citing his right as a Senator to…”talk for a while” or filibustering. In Dodd’s speech you saw how deeply he cares about this issue and how frustrated he is to see his colleagues in the Senate taking our country down a path away from the rule of law and towards the rule of man. Talking for a while, in the end, may be all he can do. But he will do it and I hope his peers and the American people listen.

Senator Chris Dodd just released this statement on the pending warrantless wiretapping and retroactive immunity fight, via Tim Tagaris at Daily Kos.

“Few things are more detrimental to this country than the erosion of and attack on the civil liberties we enjoy. This isn’t a Democratic issue or a Republican issue; this is an American issue. If after debate, the Senate appears ready to pass legislation granting telecom providers retroactive immunity I will use any and all legislative tools at my disposal, including a filibuster, to prevent this deeply flawed bill from becoming law. More and more, Americans are rejecting the false choice that has come to define this administration: security or liberty, but never, ever both. For all those who have stood with me throughout this fight, I pledge, once more, to stand up for you.”

Dodd’s filibuster would likely happen on Thursday.

Dodd has been the Senate’s consistent leader in this fight and I think it’s safe to say that he’s a real ally to the CREDO community that doesn’t want to see big telecom companies get away with breaking the law and helping the Bush administration spy on American citizens without warrant.

Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

Disclosure: I have joined the CREDO Mobile team to stop the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping program and hold the telecom companies accountable for their lawbreaking.