As bad a week as it's been for John McCain, it's been a TERRIBLE week for Dianne Feinstein. She watched in the Senate Judiciary Committee as Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who she voted to confirm, put on as bad a performance as Alberto Gonzales ever did, covering for the Administration's criminal actions, from torture to politicization of the Justice Department. Then, of course, there was the FISA vote, where she bowed to President Bush and voted to participate in a coverup. Despite this public statement just two weeks before the vote:
I believe the court should not grant immunity without looking into the legality of the companies' actions. So if there is an amendment that does support this, I would intend to vote for it.
Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 5059 to H.R. 6304 (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978)
Statement of Purpose: To limit retroactive immunity for providing assistance to the United States to instances in which a Federal court determines the assistance was provided in connection with an intelligence activity that was constitutional.
Feinstein (D-CA), Nay
And of course, she voted against stripping immunity, for cloture, and for the final bill.
Then there's this water bond which is more of a true compromise for DiFi, but still includes funds for building dams, and ignores unspent water funds from a 2006 bond issue. So the idea is to borrow on top of the borrowing.
Courage Campaign is considering whether or not to push censure, but CREDO Action isn't waiting to voice their displeasure. From an email:
On July 9th, sixty-nine senators voted to gut the Bill of Rights. They voted to hand President Bush the power to spy on Americans without warrants, and to grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms who allegedly helped him break the law in the past.
No wonder the Associated Press headline following the bill's passage read, "Senate bows to Bush."
So why does a president with the lowest approval ratings since the advent of polling have the power to eviscerate the Constitution?
Because Sen. Feinstein gave it to him.
We can't undo what our senators have done. But we can tell them that we can't believe they'd rather protect President Bush and his law-breaking cronies than the civil liberties of all Americans.
Click here to tell Sen. Feinstein that you are watching, that you are disappointed, and that you won't sit idly by while our Congress destroys our Constitution.
After you sign the petition, please be sure to tell a few friends.
It's really the establishment mindset, afraid of being labeled weak and then bowing to the opposition party's demands, and not recognizing the irony, that must be stopped. And there's no greater symbol of that mindset than DiFi.
UPDATE: (Bob) With rumors swirling that a Federal Grand Jury is poised to indict Don Perata, this has also the week that Perata has been telling anyone who will listening that the FBI investigation is a political witch hunt. Which, if true, means DiFi's infamous statement that he, "is not Alberto Gonzalez" in announcing her support for Mukasey's confirmation looks all the more ridiculous. Perata defenders like Roger Salazar and Jason Kinney and Bob Mulholland can use the above link to cast their votes to hold Feinstein accountable. Interestingly, Mukasey's confirmation blunder was cited specifically in the previous censure push when Art Torres put his credibility on the line defending her. And this week DiFi undermined that credibility with retroactive immunity caving at the same time CDP credibility was threatened with the Perata handout which rationalizers say was necessary because of Mukasey. Accountability matters.
The handshakes have been made, the contribution checks have been written, and the telecom industry and corporate shill Democrats have joined forces to immunize lawbreaking and undermine the rule of law. This time, for real.
A final deal has been reached on a rewrite of electronic surveillance rules and will be announced Thursday, two congressional aides said.
The aides said the House is likely to take up the legislation Friday....
As of Wednesday, sources said the new bill would allow a federal district court to decide whether to provide retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies being sued for their role in the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program....One source said the federal district court deciding on retroactive immunity would review whether there was "substantial evidence" the companies had received assurances from the government that the administration's program was legal.
Absolutely absurd. Not only does this bill still allow for mass surveillance on American citizens, but according to its provisions, if the Attorney General wrote a "get out of the Constitution free" note to its telecom partners, which we alrady know they did, then they are allowed to violate federal statutes. The telecoms don't have any lawyers who can provide their own analysis, apparently. I guess all the money goes into lobbying. This is total amnesty without any way of discovering who broke the law and when. The entire point of telecom immunity was to shut down any investigations into spying on Americans. Democrats are cupable for having not spoken up to stop this when they had the chance and the Hoyer-Rockefeller axis wants to just bury the bodies.
This will come up for a vote as soon as TOMORROW in the House, despite being just released today. Your representative needs a call. Joe Baca is a Blue Dog who supported the good FISA bill, the one without amnesty. He in particular needs some attention.
When this reaches the Senate, it will be another accountability moment for Dianne Feinstein. She has tried to duck this debate repeatedly, but she can tell us by her vote where she stands - with corporate execs and lobbyists, or with the rule of law and the right to privacy.
Several months ago, at a time where Dianne Feinstein was facing censure for a series of votes siding with the Bush Administration over Democratic values or the Constitution, Art Torres assured us all, in a highly emotional speech, that he discussed telecom immunity, a forthcoming issue, with her, and that "thanks to her" immunity was stripped from the bill.
"Don't believe me, ask my friend Senator Dodd, who will tell you that she led the effort along with him to make sure that [immunity] wasn't in the official bill that emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee."
That wasn't true then, of course; Patrick Leahy's ju-jitsu by putting immunity in Title II of the bill and then dropping it was what did the trick. But of course, that wasn't enough. The Intelligence Committee bill, the one with amnesty for the phone companies, was what made it to the floor. Feinstein offered some amendments. Her "exclusivity" amendment to make FISA the exclusive means under which government spying takes place "failed" because only 57 Senators voted for it; under the unanimous consent agreement, that particular amendment needed 60 votes to pass because it had too much support. This essentially invalidates all laws passed by the Congress, since in the absence of exclusivity, what is implied is that the President has the ability to go outside whatever law is passed.
So in that environment, there was a vote to strip telecom immunity from the bill. This is something the President alone can't dictate to the courts. This is the only opportunity to find the truth about how our government spied on us. And Dianne Feinstein, hoping that we weren't paying attention, voted against stripping it out.
It was a few months away from any pressure on her, so she felt OK with allowing the President to break American laws. Here's what's happening today:
The Senate today -- led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus -- will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration's years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans. The long, hard efforts by AT&T, Verizon and their all-star, bipartisan cast of lobbyists to grease the wheels of the Senate -- led by former Bush 41 Attorney General William Barr and former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick -- are about to pay huge dividends, as such noble efforts invariably do with our political establishment.
Every single Senator, all of whom committed to a unanimous consent agreement that precluded any possibility to amend the bill, is responsible. But everyone in the world knew Dianne Feinstein would sell us out and give the phone companies what they wanted for violating civil liberties. Everyone, that is, except for Art Torres.
I'd like a personal apology, thanks. So should everyone who was in that room in Anaheim.
[UPDATE]: In case anyone was wondering, DiFi's "good faith" amendment fell to defeat, 41-57. Chris Dodd rightly voted against it, because it was an idiotic compromise.
Several months ago, at a time where Dianne Feinstein was facing censure for a series of votes siding with the Bush Administration over Democratic values or the Constitution, Art Torres assured us all, in a highly emotional speech, that he discussed telecom immunity, a forthcoming issue, with her, and that "thanks to her" immunity was stripped from the bill.
"Don't believe me, ask my friend Senator Dodd, who will tell you that she led the effort along with him to make sure that [immunity] wasn't in the official bill that emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee."
That wasn't true then, of course; Patrick Leahy's ju-jitsu by putting immunity in Title II of the bill and then dropping it was what did the trick. But of course, that wasn't enough. The Intelligence Committee bill, the one with amnesty for the phone companies, was what made it to the floor. Feinstein offered some amendments. Her "exclusivity" amendment to make FISA the exclusive means under which government spying takes place "failed" because only 57 Senators voted for it; under the unanimous consent agreement, that particular amendment needed 60 votes to pass because it had too much support. This essentially invalidates all laws passed by the Congress, since in the absence of exclusivity, what is implied is that the President has the ability to go outside whatever law is passed.
So in that environment, there was a vote to strip telecom immunity from the bill. This is something the President alone can't dictate to the courts. This is the only opportunity to find the truth about how our government spied on us. And Dianne Feinstein, hoping that we weren't paying attention, voted against stripping it out.
It was a few months away from any pressure on her, so she felt OK with allowing the President to break American laws. Here's what's happening today:
The Senate today -- led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus -- will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration's years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans. The long, hard efforts by AT&T, Verizon and their all-star, bipartisan cast of lobbyists to grease the wheels of the Senate -- led by former Bush 41 Attorney General William Barr and former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick -- are about to pay huge dividends, as such noble efforts invariably do with our political establishment.
Every single Senator, all of whom committed to a unanimous consent agreement that precluded any possibility to amend the bill, is responsible. But everyone in the world knew Dianne Feinstein would sell us out and give the phone companies what they wanted for violating civil liberties. Everyone, that is, except for Art Torres.
I'd like a personal apology, thanks. So should everyone who was in that room in Anaheim.
Marcy Wheeler has two excellent stories up today at her new home which I highly recommend to you if you want to understand Dianne Feinstein's evolving position on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms. We know that, several weeks ago, Feinstein was wholly in support of immunity, having happily voted for it in the Intelligence Committee. During yesterday's floor debate, she offered a couple amendments, both with the goal of putting the warrantless wiretapping program and all questions about it, now and forever, under the authority of the FISA court. In Marcy's first piece, she notes the conservative reaction to Feinstein's amendment asking that the question of immunity be decided by the FISA court instead of the Congress.
If you didn't already know, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out a FISA bill yesterday that does not grant immunity to telecom companies for participating in the illegal spying on Americans in George Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. It's convoluted, but there were basically two bills, a Title I and a Title II. Title I had no immunity; Title II did. Russ Feingold tried to strip immunity from Title II, but he failed, and DiFi voted for immunity. But at the end of the day, only Title I got reported out.
This is NOT a total victory. First of all, Harry Reid could decide to bring the Intelligence Committee's bill, which has immunity, to the full floor. And there will almost certainly be an amendment calling for immunity on the floor, even if an immunity-free bill is called up for vote. So the Judiciary Committee basically punted.
But this James Risen article untangling what happened yesterday has an interesting little nugget halfway down the page.
(UPDATE: The ACLU and CREDO, formerly Act For Change, are also pushing Sen. Feinstein.)
In addition to the buzz in the blogosphere about activist efforts to censure Dianne Feinstein for her votes with Bush Republicans on key issues, some of the top progressive organizations have DiFi in their sights. MoveOn is asking their California members to call Feinstein about tomorrow's vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee over the revised FISA bill, and tell her not to grant retroactive immunity to telecom companies who violated the law by handing over information to the Bush Administration.
Senator Dianne Feinstein is facing tremendous pressure from the Bush administration. Tomorrow, she will likely vote on whether or not to let the phone companies off the hook for helping the president illegally spy on the phone calls and emails of innocent Americans.
President Bush wants immunity for these companies to cover-up his own illegal actions. The pending lawsuits against companies like AT&T may be the only way we ever find out how far the Bush administration went in breaking the law.
We have to make sure Sen. Feinstein hears from us right away. Can you call Sen. Feinstein and tell her to vote against immunity for big corporations who break the law? Tell her that voters want accountability and oversight-not immunity.
Here's where to call:
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Phone: 202-224-3841
DiFi has already signaled her intention to allow telecom immunity for lawbreakers, but clearly she needs to feel the pressure. What is far more interesting is DFA's effort to have Feinstein removed from the Senate Judiciary Committee altogether. on the flip...
