Shame on you Harry!

[lonestarnot]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/16/dodd-to-filibuster-fisa-bill-needs-material-to-read-on-senate-floor/

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid loves parliamentary procedure so much that he is essentially selling out his own party to allow the Senate to debate the FISA bill with the telecom immunity. As Glenn spells out:

The summarized version is that there were two competing bills which Reid could have brought to the floor — the Senate Intelligence Committee version engineered by Jay Rockefeller and Dick Cheney which gives the administration most of what it wants, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, which does not contain telecom amnesty and contains far more extensive oversight protections. Reid could have brought the bill to the floor using whatever process he wanted, and he has decided — contrary to weeks of assurances — that the SIC bill will serve as the “base” bill, meaning that improving it (by removing amnesty and increasing oversight) will require 60 votes, rendering such efforts virtually impossible. In doing so, Reid is brazenly ignoring the demands of 14 Senators — including all of the Democratic presidential candidates — to have the Judiciary Committee bill be the base bill.

Worse still, Reid is completely disregarding the “hold” placed by Chris Dodd on any amnesty bill — simply refusing to honor it, even as he respectfully honors literally scores of “holds” from GOP Senators such as Tom Coburn. And while Dodd is interrupting his campaigning to fly to Washington to lead the filibuster he vowed, Reid has ensured with scheduling manuevers that the filibuster will take place only over the weekend — when all of the members are away raising money anyway and journalists aren’t paying attention — with the intent to try to force cloture once everyone returns on Monday.

So if that’s the way Harry Reid wants to play it, Chris Dodd is going to use parliamentary procedure as well–to filibuster the SIC version of the bill. Thank the deity of your choice for a Democrat who not only represents Democratic values, but also acts like an opposition party leader. I don’t mean you, Harry. And like the The West Wing clip above, Senators Feingold and Kennedy have promised to help by asking questions, to give Dodd a chance to rest or have a bite.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. With this one move...

My regard for Chris Dodd has soared. The man has grit.

[lonestarnot]

2. I've been liking him for some time. Admirable and intelligent, two good qualities.

[maddezmom]

3. Just call Reid's office, staffer said he was seriously looking at a letter from Menendez

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is under sharp new pressure to bring forward surveillance legislation that would block the Bush administration's warrantless spying program.

All of the Democratic Senators running for president -- Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Obama -- as well as Sens. Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Edward Kennedy and others, have written Reid pressing him to take up the surveillance bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Reid has said he plans to take up different legislation passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Unlike the Judiciary bill, the Intelligence Committee legislation permits the administration to collect all communications coming in or out of the United States without a warrant. The Intelligence Committee bill also includes legal immunity for telecom firms that have participated in warrantless surveillance of Americans.

From the letter:

We also believe that the Judiciary Committee bill is preferable because it does not provide immunity for telecom companies that allegedly cooperated with the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. As this is such a controversial issue, we feel it would be appropriate to require the proponents of immunity to make their case on the floor.
Important to note that this doesn't actually rule out the possibility of retroactive immunity, merely that immunity will be determined without a Senate-wide debate.


more:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/12/08-dems-pressure-reid-ov_n_76508.html

interesting he didn't mention any of the other names on the list. Guess we'll see where Harry stands on this one soon.

[liberalla]

5. Thank you for this info and link - I'm calling his office now

:kick:

[Beelzebud]

4. It's getting very hard to support the established Democratic party...

[mzmolly]

9. Dodd is an "established" Democrat. And this is but one example of the differences

between the two major parties. Democrats don't "fall in line."

Go Dodd!

[liberalla]

6. kick !

:kick:

[Junkdrawer]

7. Reid uses 60-vote cloture to give his masters what they want...

while providing DINOs the fig leaf of "If we only had the votes..."

[kansasblue]

8. This was the one issue that we had the upper hand because

new legislation was required. The advantage that the old bill would expire means that if the R and D don't agree the law expires and the bad part goes out of effect.... and there is no telecom immunity.

And Harry gave that away. Damn... I don't get that.