Glenn Grenwald is being tough on Obama with this...but, it's worth a read...

UPDATE IV: Greg Sargent reports on Obama's latest FISA comments from today and his explanation as to how he can support a bill with telecom amnesty when he previously vowed to filibuster any such bill. Obama explained, in essence, that he won't jeopardize our National Security in order to hold telecoms accountable under the rule of law ("My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that override the security interests of the American people"). Apparently, we can't be safe unless we immunize telecoms. Dick Cheney couldn't have said it any better himself.

Obama's comments today will undoubtedly please the likes of this typical anonymous "senior Democratic lawmaker" -- quoted in a Wall St. Journal article documenting Obama's drift to the Right -- who is too cowardly to attach his name to his comments (h/t Matt Stoller):

"I applaud it," a senior Democratic lawmaker said. "By standing up to MoveOn.org and the ACLU, he's showing, I think, maybe the first example of demonstrating his ability to move to the center. He's got to make the center comfortable with him. He can't win if the center isn't comfortable."


That's the sickly mentality dominating the Democratic Party: Democrats must stand up not to George Bush, the Iraq War and rampant lawlessness, but rather, to the ACLU. That's exactly why they are currently in the process of trampling upon core civil liberties and the rule of law. That's how you stand up to the ACLU and show how Tough and Centrist you are.

Whatever else is true, if Democrats and Barack Obama vote this bill into law, they will be (a) legalizing warrantless spying on Americans and (b) embracing the core premise of Bush radicalism: that as long as the President says something is legal (as he told telecoms that warrantless spying was legal), then it ought to be treated as such.