*Now* Reid's Cracking Down?

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/01/23/lt-i-gt-now-lt-i-gt-reid-s-getting-tough-on-filibusters.aspx

*Now* Reid's Cracking Down?

So Harry Reid announced that the Senate would take up new FISA legislation, which would include retroactive immunity for telecom companies that broke the law and helped the Bush administration do warrantless spying (see this New York Times story for an overview). Chris Dodd said that he'd filibuster the bill. But now Reid's insisting that Dodd and friends are going to have to do a "real" filibuster:

If people think they are going to talk this to death, we are going to be in here all night. This is not something we are going to have a silent filibuster on. If someone wants to filibuster this bill, they are going to do it in the openness of the Senate.

That's nice, but, umm... how come Chris Dodd of all people is the only senator who has to do a "real" filibuster? I don't recall Reid threatening to "be in here all night" when the GOP blocked the Webb amendment, or the habeas corpus bill, or the energy-bill provisions shifting tax breaks away from oil companies and toward renewables, or any of the other bills the Republicans have been filibustering at an unprecedented rate, etc.

--Bradford Plumer

ME: Good question. Why is Dodd the only one Reid is holding accountable, and why now? :wtf:

Here, he is treating the Dem differently.

This, to me, indicates that Harry Reid wants the version of the FISA bill with immunity. He's probably on the other side's payroll on this pet piece of legislation. If the telecoms did no wrong, why do they need immunity?

nuff said.

with a flood of calls from people like me P-R-O-M-I-S-I-N-G to vote out anyone who doesn't stand behind Senator Dodd, the people and the CONSTITUTION. I tried to phone feinstein's SF office and was placed on perpetual hold; I called her DC off and got busy signals. I finally got the LA office and promised that if she didn't stand up for us, she would be making a move, so help me God, in January. If I have anything to do with it, that lying heifer is moving her creepy ass A-N-Y-W-A-Y.

the repukes actually all night filibuster the amendments to the Intelligence committee bill that would remove immunity. I think.

Reid is owned by the telecoms. The link at this post shows the the groups financing his campaigns. Notice AT&T, SPRINT/NEXTEL, and VERIZON.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2755608

Reid Challenges GOP to Filibuster Anti-Immunity Provision
By Paul Kiel - January 24, 2008, 11:50AM
So here is where the FISA debate, which kicked off in earnest this morning, stands.

The first vote today will be on the Senate Judiciary Committee's version of the surveillance legislation, which contains no retroactive immunity for the telecoms who collaborated with the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. That will be at two o'clock this afternoon. There is no agreement that such a vote meet a 60-vote threshold, so when the Republicans move to block that bill, the vote will be held on a 50-vote threshold. If they win that vote, then the bill will revert back to the Senate intelligence committee's bill, which has a retroactive immunity provision.

After that will come a number of amendments, among them Sens. Chris Dodd's (D-CT) and Russ Feingold's (D-WI), which contains a provision to strip the immunity from the bill. Reid says that he supports such a bill. And he said today that Republicans will have to actually filibuster if they want to stop any of the amendments from getting a simple majority vote:

"As I have said before, if there are Senators who don't like these amendments and think they should be subjected to 60-vote thresholds, these Senators are going to have to engage in an old-fashioned filibuster. These amendments are by and large germane, and I believe they should be adopted if a majority of the Senate supports them."
-snip
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/005130.php

When Reid said something similar yesterday, a number of people interpreted it as in reference to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) who has said that he would filibuster any bill that contained retroactive immunity. Now it seems as if that remark was meant for everyone.

We probalby need their two votes to get the non-immunity thing passed, but I expect they will both be in South Carolina.

While at the same time, he's ignored Democratic holds. Ron Wyden had a hold on a typically odious Bush nomination. He was out of town for a few days, during which time Reid ran the nomination through confirmation without even calling Wyden. Why was Wyden not in Washington, bird-dogging his hold? His wife was back in Oregon, giving birth to twins.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7324628

So thanks a heap, Harry. You allow silent filibusters by the Republicans; you're going to force your own party to filibuster telecom immunity. I hope that cheap suit you're wearing is fireproof.

his leadership has been compromised by his past dealings, nie and blackmail. Nothing else explains it

If he's willing to screw his own party on this, in favor of the Republicans and his campaign donors, his membership should be torn up and someone better put in his place.

and asked if it was true that he was holding Dodd to a "real" filibuster after giving the R's a pass for over a year. The staffer said, "no, that's not correct." I said, "OK, what is Reid's position on telco immunity?" The staffer said it was not his job to explain that to me. OK......

Enough is enough .......By Naomi Wolf


Like many of us, after having watched helplessly as the Bush administration trampled the Constitution and made a mockery of checks and balances over the course of five bitter years, I was hopeful when the American people elected a Democratic Congress in November of 2006. Finally, I imagined, we would have a whiff of legality and the hint of a restoration of the rule of law in the land. Perhaps we would even have congressional committees to oversee the administration's subversions of the rule of law and investigate the wide range of abuses that it had perpetrated since 2001.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x334185