Are Democrats Ready To Cave In On NSA Legislation?
As the debate over the N.S.A.’s wiretapping powers begins anew this week, the emerging legislation reflects the political reality confronting the Democrats. While they are willing to oppose the White House on the conduct of the war in Iraq, they remain nervous that they will be labeled as soft on terrorism if they insist on strict curbs on intelligence gathering.
A Democratic bill to be proposed Tuesday in the House would maintain for several years the type of broad, blanket authority for N.S.A. wiretapping that the administration secured in August for just six months. But in an acknowledgment of civil liberties concerns, the measure would also require a more active role by the special foreign intelligence court that oversees the N.S.A.’s interception of foreign-based communications.
A competing proposal in the Senate, still being drafted, may be even closer in line with the administration’s demands, with the possibility of including retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that took part in the N.S.A.’s once-secret program to wiretap without court warrants.
No one is willing to predict with certainty how the issue will play out. But some Congressional officials and others monitoring the debate over the legislation said the final result may not be much different than it was two months ago, despite Democrats’ insistence that they would not let stand the August extension of the N.S.A.’s powers.â€
Still I’m suspicious of this article mainly because anytime the MSM puts stuff like this out it usually “riles the troops†and get’s them hopping mad. So perhaps it’s to provoke soundbites and face time the usual suspects before the final vote.
I’ll bet Leahy’s getting his head polished now.
To me, it looks like both sides are making concessions, but in the end, it’s Bush who will likely come out the winner.
Politics. For the Dems it’s all about saying that they accomplished something – “We held those treacherous telecoms/robber barons’ feet to the fire for cooperating with us!†– when in fact they’ve done absolutely nothing since being elected last year. Sigh.
It would be nice if it were wisdom rather than cowardice that led the Democrats to do the right thing on the enemy intercept authority, but that is probably too much from this lot. The Democrats’ opposition to the measure was always unreasonable in the extreme in war time. It was very likely responsible for the delay in the hunt for the kidnapped US troops in Iraq.
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Posted by Jay on October 9, 2007 9:29 am
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, News, War On Terror
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