Earlier this week (Wednesday, February 13th) House Democrats decided not to bring the expiring FISA legislation to a floor vote, letting the nation’s FISA laws lapse.
The Senate had passed the Bill 68 – 29 with 19 Democrats voting in favor of the Bill, including newly elected “Blue Dogs” Jim Webb, Sheldon Whitehouse and Claire McCaskill, which included retroactive immunity for Telecom Companies who are occasionally asked to eavesdrop by the government.
Pelosi feared that many House Democrats would vote to pass that Senate Bill, as well, thus they tabled the Bill and going on a 12 day recess.
Of the 29 Dems who voted to block the Senate Bill, 24 of them took money from trial lawyers (as did two absent ones – Hillary Clinton, D-NY and Barack Obama D-Il). Amanda Carpenter of Townhall.com has compiled a great amount of information that shows that more than 60 trial lawyers, representing plaintiffs in various Telecom suits have contributed over $1.5 MILLION to Democratic Senators and their interests http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/02/13/obama,_hillary,_dems_take_fisa_trial_lawyer_cash?page=full&comments=true
The Senate had passed the Bill 68 – 29 with 19 Democrats voting in favor of the Bill, including newly elected “Blue Dogs” Jim Webb, Sheldon Whitehouse and Claire McCaskill, which included retroactive immunity for Telecom Companies who are occasionally asked to eavesdrop by the government.
Pelosi feared that many House Democrats would vote to pass that Senate Bill, as well, thus they tabled the Bill and going on a 12 day recess.
Of the 29 Dems who voted to block the Senate Bill, 24 of them took money from trial lawyers (as did two absent ones – Hillary Clinton, D-NY and Barack Obama D-Il). Amanda Carpenter of Townhall.com has compiled a great amount of information that shows that more than 60 trial lawyers, representing plaintiffs in various Telecom suits have contributed over $1.5 MILLION to Democratic Senators and their interests http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/02/13/obama,_hillary,_dems_take_fisa_trial_lawyer_cash?page=full&comments=true
Twenty-one Conservative Democrats signed a letter to Speaker Pelosi urging passage of the Rockefeller Bill that would grant immunity.
Speaker Pelosi DID try and offer a 21 day FISA extension without immunity, but it was voted down, with many of the new “Blue Dog” Democrats voting against Pelosi’s 21 day extension despite Ms. Pelosi and the Party trying hard to secure their votes. Reports are that about a half dozen Blue Dogs voted against the extension (all of them had signed the letter urging passage of the Senate Bill) and about twenty-eight other “Kucinich Democrats” voted against it, as they consistently vote against every kind of anti-terror legislation.
So, it can be surmised that there actually less than thirty “MoveOn.org Democrats” in the House, the rest of those opposed, including Pelosi, the majority of the House Dems and Democratic Senators such as Reid, Clinton and Obama sold out their nation’s national security interests for cash from the trial lawyers hoping to make money from suing companies that assist the government’s domestic security measures.
Great post. Thanks for discussing it. Have you ever read "The Greek and Macedonian Art of War" by Frank Adcock? In the book, Adcock writes about Greeks who actually delivered their own cities to the hands of their enemies rather than see their political opponents have a political victory.
ReplyDeleteWhat comes around goes around, I guess.
No, I confes I haven't.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation.
I guess that's what's called a pyrrhic victory.
Thanks for stopping by....and for posting.