Perhaps I should wait till Friday, let the Surrender Monkey handle this post, but it is too good, and funny!, to wait
House Democrats on Wednesday abruptly pulled a bill intended to curb the administration’s terrorist surveillance program after Republicans tried to correct a flaw in the bill — and it looked like rank-and-file Democrats would go along with the Republican motion.
Republicans complained that the Democrats’ FISA “reform” bill (called the RESTORE Act of 2007) would prohibit timely surveillance of terror groups by requiring the intelligence community to obtain a FISA court order to listen to terrorist communications.
House Republicans offered a motion to fix the bill. They wanted to make it clear that the intelligence community could conduct immediate surveillance on Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda, or any other foreign terrorist organization without waiting for a FISA court to issue a warrant.
The Democrats’ bill said intelligence officials would have to obtain a FISA court order to listen to foreign terror suspects, including Osama bin Laden, who operate overseas but who may have had contact with people in the U.S. or who may have called a U.S. number.
When it looked like Democrats would go along with the Republicans’ motion to amend the bill, Democratic leaders pulled it off the House schedule.
“The Democrats’ full-scale retreat on FISA this evening was spurred by a single amendment — a provision that would’ve made clear that nothing in their bill could be used to prevent U.S. agents from tracking al Qaeda and other foreign terrorists abroad,” said House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri on Wednesday.
The true meaning of “San Francisco liberal” is in evidence. Hissy fits so major over the amendment to allow unfettered access to electronic surveillence of al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden without waiting for a FISA warrant that they pulled the entire Bill. How wrong are we on the Right when we say that the Democrats are actively helping Islamic terrorists. What else could it be when they want to require a prior warrant to listen to the phone calls of known terrorists abroad? People who are not U.S. citizens?
Unfortunately, this is another issue that the national GOP will fail to capitalize on. Maybe they are waiting till next year, when it gets close to election time, but, I doubt it. The GOP should be putting together commercials highlighting the comings and goings of the Democrats in Congress. If they did, I bet the donations to the RNC would go back up.
Do you have an interesting post? Well, go ahead and leave a trackback, with a reciprical link back to me. Otherwise, the Democrats might surrender you!
PS: Akismet is being super tight azzed with WP 2.3. I will rescue TB’s.
