Another Run at Telecom Immunity

When I got up this morning and took a look at this blog, I wasn't at all pleased with the head on last night's post. I was strapped for a title before going to bed, and I went for a faux naivety. Unfortunately, in the cold light of day this morning, the faux part isn't quite so obvious. The default position on this issue is and has been that the Bush administration and its telecom partners can use their surveillance powers in whatever way they wish without any accountability. That's how it will all work out unless someone (i.e., Democrats) act to prevent it.

I have to pretty much admit that I'm at a loss to figure out the dynamics of the Senate debate today. Although Majority Leader Harry Reid insisted that he was against telecom immunity, it looked as though he was making matters easier for the forces pushing it rather than those opposing it. On Tuesday, he was pushing to have the entire debate and vote complete by the end of the day Thursday (Glenn Greenwald has the details here). But then something happened today to change Reid's trajectory. Tim Tagaris, Chris Dodd's Internet guru during his candidacy, claims that it's just the fact that Republicans became intransigent this afternoon and blocked anything and everything having to do with the bill. That makes sense to me, but who knows.

The long and short of it, however, is that a cloture vote is scheduled for Monday afternoon. In the same post I linked to earlier, Tim Tagaris spells out what that cloture vote means. The good news is that there are three days to influence Democratic senators who voted for telecom immunity in a procedural vote to vote against cloture. With the Prez's state of the union address scheduled for Monday evening, it's virtually certain that Obama and Clinton will be present, as well, so that will ratchet up a bit more attention. Marcy Wheeler has contact information for the Democratic fence sitters (and Republican Arlen Specter for good measure). The stakes are high, but Democrats can win, if they get their act together. Call and encourage them to do just that.