The Democrats’ FISA debacle; Update: New deal in the works?
Update: Andy McCarthy points to signs of a new Senate FISA deal.
***
Question of the night comes from Paul Mirengoff at Power Line in the wake of the Democrats’ withdrawal of their flawed FISA obstruction legislation:
My question is: how did the Democrats sink to a place where they place pandering to left-wing constituencies and sticking it to the president ahead of the safety of Americans, including American GIs? Tonight, more than a few “moderate” congressional Dems are probably wondering the same thing.
USA Today reports:
Republicans successfully maneuvered to derail a Democratic government eavesdropping bill Wednesday, delaying a House vote until next week at the earliest.
The bill, which seeks to expand court oversight of government surveillance in the United States, fell victim to a gambit by the chamber’s Republican minority. Democrats were forced to pull the bill from the House floor with no certainty about how it might be revived.
A Democratic staff member said the bill will not be rewritten but substantive amendments may be allowed when it finally does come up for a vote, which is the Democrats’ intention.
The earliest that could happen is next week, as Thursday the House will be busy with an attempt to override a presidential veto of a children’s health care bill.
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The posturing explains to some extent the 11% approval rating Congress has earned. Anybody want to bet they can’t attain single digits?
Gee, now that republicans don’t have the chairmanships of committees in the House or Senate and are in the minority, they figure out how to win. What a party!
Are there anymore “moderates” left? I though moveon.org owned the party.
I hope the Democrats keep Reid,Pelosi et al. right where they are. And as long as they figure that most of the country is asleep and preoccupied they will stay at 11%. We can hope.
A critical National Security vote takes a back seat to expand an entitlement program? A program that works in the form the President is willing to sign?
This is insane. And beyond irresponsible. It is pretty clear that the best interests of the United States are not on their agenda. They do not represent the citizens of the US any longer, being too caught up in political theater. I would like to see how they explain why they tabled the vote on a measure that is critical to our collective security in order to “try” for a veto override to expand an entitlement program that does not need to be expanded.
The Democratic leadership has truly created their own world on the other side of the looking glass.
Democrats truly are over the bridge and most Americans will hopefully see through it.
Reid and Pelosi wouldn’t believe that they only have an 11% approval rating under any circumstance. Being Democrats they understand that we lowly surfs couldn’t possible understand the consequences of our convictions not could we possibly have any idea of what’s best for our own personal good. That’s why they’ve been appointed by the people for the “good of the people” and to protect us from our dumb selves. I’m sure somewhere in those pee-brains of theirs they think they are doing the right thing… Once again the shield of righteousness will protect them from the will of the people whether we possess the intelligence to understand it or not.
Oh, I think Blutarski-like ratings are easily achievable.
One would think that all of the monies that Soros The Socialist is pumping into the DNC to own that party and all that are in it, he would have better results.
The DNC is a conglomeration of idiots and losers.
What have they done for the country since 11/06?
Exactly, what?
With all of their rhetoric, what have they contributed to this country in a positive manner?
If Bush is so darn stupid and he keeps figuring out how to get Congress to give him everything that he wants… what does that make them?
Hmmmmmm.
Well for those few of us who did not already know it, they PROVED beyond question they want to shut down ‘free speech’
This is VERY important!!!!
Absolutely unreal, to think that members of Congress would interfere with intelligence focused on incoming calls made by identified foreign threats. My golly, now AQ has Democrat human shields in the halls of Congress!
Congress should not interfere with the collection of signals intelligence overseas. There should be NO restrictions.
Put everyone in US on notice that telephone calls or e-mails to or from the United States from or to overseas are subject to surveillance.
Everyone who comes into the United States is subject to search at their point of entry. The same should be true for all electronic messages.
Since they took the majority its been like a dog gnawing you’re ankles while trying to get some work done.
When a GOP bill fails do the media gods cite “democrat maneuvering” as the cause?
but, TJ they’ve got their base so worried that the evil President Bush wants to listen in on their phone calls. They don’t want the government “spying” on them. Does anyone see the irony?
Of course, with much of their treasonous activities and their rhetoric that bolsters our enemies, some of them may be on somebody’s watch list.
Of course, if they were in the President’s seat, then “spying” on conservatives would be justified in their minds.
What a bunch of yahoos, these libs are…who voted these people???
Sort of OT - here in NJ, the general election is coming up and yesterday I read the funniest election sign ever. It read “Stop Higher Taxes, Vote No On All Ballots.”
Apparently, in NJ, Dem and Rep alike love to raise taxes…
Nice to see the Reps finally growing a pair.
Remember the 2006 election?
Where the people got rid of the trash in the GOP?
Perhaps we are now seeing what the Reps are capable of now that the RINOs are gone. (I hope, I hope, I hope AND pray!)
Lets’ see if they also get the message about fiscal responsibility and immigration (USA, not NAU!).
Oh, BTW:
Has anyone noticed the story circulating Hillary Clinton?
She voted to stop the wire tapping of terrorists, yet had no problem using her husband’s administration to wiretap her political opponents.
Didn’t she work with McGovern & Co. to get Nixon impeached for that?
Double standard or Triple?
I saw this that summed it up well about what their failure has done.
Unintended Consequences
Strange they don’t report this fact when talking about this.
Ok, so let me get this straight: The democrats want to stop surveillance of terrorists so that the next time there is a major terrorist attack and we are caught by surprise - they can blame Bush.
One of the two democrat mantras of the last election was “How dare you say I’m not patriotic!“.
I’ll say it.
It’s not patriotic to be a bunch of terrorist enablers.
Considering this is a Zogby poll there is more than likely a liberal bias to this poll, plus if you factor in about a 3% +/- margin of error they probably are already at the single digit level. Between this and the BS they are trying to pull with Turkey someone really needs to have a nice quiet chat with the FBI for treason and sedition. What say you Queen Pelosi?
Surely you don’t mean Moslems and terrorists coming across the Mexican border with the illegal aliens?
Seems neither party regards terrorism as a real threat, so the motive for eavesdropping is probably control of the people by the unitary executive.
I love their stupidity,they never get it.The American people are not as tuned out or dumb as they think.We have been told for over six years how stupid GW is but he seems to kick tail on everything they do.They think most Americans are like what they believed they were in the 60’s(wrong again).We must help them keep thinking that way,the more they do the more I love it.
I don’t understand the Dems concern about privacy. Isn’t their philosophy any activity, except a “hate crime” is OK? So, why be private about anything? And wouldn’t they want to know about hate crimes in advance so they could
prepare their press releases… er… protect the victims?Anyway, the privacy train left the station long ago for anyone that uses a credit card or a cell phone etc. Try googling yourself. If call intercepts stop someone from blowing up an elementary school, I don’t mind them listening to me talk about an embarrassing rash.
This doesn’t get as much attention as it needs to. Their only purpose is to try and undermine our effort in Iraq by pissing off an ally.
Could somebody, anybody, please give me a coherant argument for not wire-tapping terrorists?
“Look, it’s Osama! He’s on the phone, what’s he saying?”
“Can you hear me now? If so, it’s illegal, get off the line, I want to plan the murder of thousands of innocents without you listening in. And don’t go rummaging in my dresser drawer either.”
When might be the question.
When Bill Clinton and his ilk made immoralities and selfish self-centered thinking a way of life in the White House, many other narcissists bought in to that mentality. Personal gain over all else. Now deceit and CYA is the norm for many ‘constituencies’, sadly.
.
Get what you want at any cost to OTHERS, just CYA and make plans for your own damn future.