Category: Rule of Law

SSCI Bill Fails Cloture

This is very good, if somewhat expected, news.

The Senate just defeated cloture on the bad Intelligence committee bill. The bill needed 60 votes, but only received 48 in favor, with 45 opposed. The full roll call is here.

New votes opposing the Intel bill:

Obama
Bayh
Rockefeller
Clinton
McCaskill
Inouye
Johnson
Specter
Carper
Salazar
Mikulski

Senators Ben Nelson, Mark Pryor, and Mary Landrieu all continued to vote against the right position. Senator Landrieu had initially voted “no,” but changed her vote to “aye” when it was clear the vote would fail cloture.

The vote on the 30 day extension to the PAA is about to start. It is also expected to fail cloture.

“We Can’t Go Back”

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.

Dodd on the Bush Presidency

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.

Not Funny

Imagine what the press would have done if Bill Clinton did stand up comedy routines in 1998 about Monica Lewinsky or Whitewater. Think Progress reports:

At the Alfalfa Club dinner on Saturday night, President Bush made light of Vice President Cheney’s penchant for secrecy while joking about Jenna Bush’s bridal shower earlier that day. “My sister Doro had a wedding shower for Jenna, who got lots of great stuff,” joked Bush. “Mom gave her a toaster. Karen Hughes gave her a Cuisinart. Dick [Cheney] here sent over a gift I could tell he’d picked out personally…a paper shredder.”

The message is clear: It’s OK for a Republican to joke about his vice president’s secrecy in contravention to the Constitution and health of these United States, just so long as it’s done in the comfortable surroundings of Washington’s wealth political elites, with the media elites pressing their ears against the door, hoping to hang out with the cool kids at the after party.

Who am I kidding… Bush would be given a pass by the media even if he dropped this joke into tonight’s State of the Union address.

FISA Voting Today

The Senate resumes its consideration of intelligence legislation today, though thanks to Republican obstructionism, there will be a cloture vote on the very bad Intelligence Committee legislation to modify and extend the poorly named Protect America Act. Democrats are seeking to keep debate going so they can consider amendments that would end warrantless wiretapping and deny big telecoms like AT&T and Verizon retroactive immunity for their role in assisting the Bush administration spy on Americans.

Debate in the Senate will start after 2 PM. The cloture vote on the Intel bill will be at 4:30 PM. That vote will be followed by a cloture vote on a 30 day extension to the PAA. Senator Reid has put this forward to ensure that the Senate doesn’t have to resolve the legislative fight around the PAA under the gun of its sunset. Hopefully Democrats can muster enough votes to pass cloture on the extension, though President Bush has already threatened to veto a PAA extension of any length.

Glenn Greenwald has a great post this morning looking back at how the PAA was passed last August and how the country should hold President Bush and his Republican cohorts accountable for their irresponsible politicization of this legislative debate, at the expense of national security. Glenn writes:

This veto threat is one of the President’s most brazen acts ever, so nakedly exposing the fun and games he routinely plays with National Security Threats. After sending Mike McConnell out last August to warn that we will all die without the PAA, Bush now says that he would rather let it expire than give Congress another 30 days. He just comes right out and announces, then, that he will leave us all vulnerable to a Terrorist Attack unless he not only gets everything he wants from Congress — all his new warrantless eavesdropping powers made permanent plus full immunity for his lawbreaking telecom partners — but also gets it exactly when he wants it (i.e., now — not 30 days from now).

If the Democrats had even the slightest strategic sense and/or courage — just the slightest amount — this is a political confrontation they would be uncontrollably eager to have. Just imagine if they sustain the filibuster today and instead pass a 30-day extension of the PAA, and then Bush vetoes it, knowingly choosing to leave the intelligence community without the ability to Listen In When Osama Is Calling. It would be the height of political stupidity for Democrats to be afraid of that outcome….

The veto threat from the President is so unbelievably corrupt and manipulative that if our national press had even the smallest amount of critical faculties and understanding of the issues, that veto threat would be a major story. After all, how can the President possibly threaten the country that he will veto a law that he himself has claimed for months is indispensable for Protecting Us All?

Read Greenwald’s whole piece to get a good background going into today’s fights.
We haven’t won anything yet and we need to keep pressure on the Senate today. Send an email to your senators through CREDO’s action alert. You can also get the fax numbers for key senators to lobby at FireDogLake.
Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

What Clinton and Obama Can Do Now

Now that we know both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be in the Senate to vote against cloture on the Intelligence Committee bill, you might be wondering what else they can do, besides show up to cast the right vote. Ari Melber of The Nation has an answer handy:

1. Use their influence and political capital to recruit two more votes for the Leahy bill. That’s all Leahy, Feingold and Dodd need to keep their fight alive under the current rules. Obama and Clinton were endorsed by a total of seven senators who voted the wrong way last week. As DFA explains, “if these presidential hopefuls bring along the support of these senators, they can sustain a planned filibuster [and] defeat any cloture vote.”

2. Use their influence and political capital to press Reid to run the floor for the Leahy bill, instead of the Bush-Rockefeller bill. This is is tough for several reasons, but there’s an opening now that Bush has essentially slapped Reid around and drawn some rhetorical pushback.

3. Rally the Democratic Congress to confront Bush’s veto threat. Send the one-month bill to his desk and let this unpopular president remind the entire country of his irresponsible, cynical approach to governing. Maybe his approval ratings will drop into the teens like his Vice President. (I personally favor this third option the least, since it involves gamesmanship instead of a long-term policy, which Leahy’s bill offers.)

Howie Klein points out who each presidential candidate should be responsible for:

Hillary could prove she’s a leader by bringing in Evan Bayh, Daniel Inouye, Bill Nelson, Barbara Mikulski and Mark Pryor, and Obama could do likewise with Tim Johnson, Claire McCaskill and Ben Nelson.

We will see what, if anything, Clinton and Obama do to turn their two “no” votes into more votes in the Senate. Without question, though, their presence will make victory more likely and show the rest of the caucus that this remains an issue deserving of the highest levels of attention in the national debate. The more we can get this fight to be treated with the gravity that it possesses, the more likely it is that senators will continue to be drawn to the side of the rule law and will be present to fight with us to defend the Constitution.

What is so remarkable about this turn of events is how we can directly tie the actions taken by the top two Democratic presidential candidates to the passionate, consistent advocacy by people online and offline around the country. From emails to faxes to photos and advertisements, Senators Clinton and Obama have been subjected to a monumental amount of pressure. This advocacy helped to show them that there was support for them to do the right thing. Criticism may well be directed at them from the Republican Party or conservative pundits for this vote, but they should rest assured that there are countless Americans who will look at their actions and say, “They’re doing the right thing.”

We can stop a bad bill today and get past Republican obstructionism. Keep up the pressure through the CREDO email action page and make sure the Senate hears from the American people today!

Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

Clinton Will Be Present To Vote Against Cloture Tomorrow

Jane Hamsher at FireDogLake has received confirmation from the Clinton campaign that Senator Clinton will be in the Senate to vote “no” to cloture on the bad Intelligence bill tomorrow. This is welcome news.

Hopefully she will be able to bring along other Senators and ensure that the Republican obstructionism is defeated.

No word yet from the Obama campaign.

Jane’s updated her post with this line: “The Obama campaign confirms that Senator Obama will be there too, and voting “no.””

Again, this is very good news and certainly brings us closer to defeating cloture on the Intel bill.

Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

Thank You Dodd

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.

Will They Do the Right Thing?

Wolfrum at Shakesville seems to be drinking the same tea as I am on the FISA fight and expectations for leadership from our Democratic presidential candidates.

Senators Clinton and Obama, your country needs you. Right now. Because civil liberties matter. Because laws matter. Because retroactive immunity from lawbreaking is not an American trait. Because having a government that can and will spy on its own citizens with no authorization is the antithesis of a free country.

Later in the same post, Wolfrum makes clear how he will view Clinton or Obama missing the cloture vote on the Intel bill on Monday.

If Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are unable and unwilling to go do their job and fight for what’s right, neither of them has any business being President of the United States. Both will have proven themselves as unfit employees who will let down their employers when they’re needed the most.

Clinton and Obama should expect a vocal backlash against them if they fail to attend Monday’s cloture vote. And rightly so.

Separate from what it will mean for our country, this would be a deeply troubling turn of events for me as a progressive Democrat and a patriotic American. It’s safe to say that no Republican presidential candidate will stand up and defend the Constitution in an age where each tries to one-up the other on how much more of a security state they will create once they succeed Bush in office. I do not trust the GOP to defend the Constitution.

But where will we be, where will I be, if our two leading Democratic candidates place themselves on the side of apathy and cynicism and absenteeism on what I believe is the most important issue facing our country right now? Terrorists will not destroy our republic. Insurgents in Iraq will not march through our cities. But if our Congress fails to defend the Constitution against an administration that gives it no regard, then we must recognize that America faces an existential crisis.

We will know in less than thirty-six hours whether or not Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will man the ramparts and defend the Constitution, or if we must pass judgment on their failure to do what our country needs.

Tapping A Journalist’s Phone

Via Christy Hardin Smith, Jeff Stein of CQ Politics has a must-read article of a prominent American journalist being eavesdropped by the government. Below is a lengthy excerpt of the piece, which leaves me very concerned about the ability of Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to ensure that the intelligence community follows the law when it comes to spying on Americans.

U.S. intelligence tapped the telephone calls of Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, starting in 2002…

The encounter came, mind you, amid the constant assurances from the Bush administration that the U.S. has not, and is not, “spying on Americans” or running a “warrantless domestic spying program.”
“Totally untrue!” McConnell told Wright, insisting that the conversations of American citizens with no connections to terrorists would be immediately discarded. U.S. intelligence is after al Qaeda, McConnell and others have repeatedly pledged, not innocent Americans.

“I’m telling you,” the former Air Force general said, “if you’re in the United States you have to have a warrant. Authorized by the court. Period!”

But Wright then told McConnell he had a more-than-professional interest in electronic surveillance.

“Let me make a disclosure,” he told the spy boss. “I have been monitored.” Continue reading “Tapping A Journalist’s Phone” →