12 February 2008

For shame....



The Democratically-controlled Senate today handed the Bush administration everything it wanted (again!).

This time, the prize was retroactive immunity for telecom companies who illegally spied on American citizens in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Glenn Greenwald at Salon has been following this story. Today's update is worth reading in its entirety, but the short version is that 19 Democrats broke ranks with their party and their constituents to hand this gift to Bush and Cheney.
UPDATE V: Final passage in the Senate of the Cheney/Rockefeller bill was 68-29. 19 Democrats joined all Republicans to vote in favor of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty: Conrad, Rockefeller, Baucus, Webb, Kohl, Whitehouse, Bayh, Johnson, Bill Nelson, Mikulski, McCaskill, Lincoln, Casey, Salazar, Inouye, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Carper, and Landrieu. Neither Obama nor Clinton voted on final passage.

No comments: