Dick Durbin

I would have written on this subject sooner, but I've spent the last three days vomiting blood and stomach acid in response to the utterly disgraceful result of FISA negotiations that came forward Friday. I've just returned from having my teeth re-enameled by my dentist and will now attempt to think about what Harry Reid has wrought without causing further bodily harm to myself.

Late last week we found out that the Democratic leadership had brokered a deal with the Republican leadership that would allow a slate of amendments to be voted on. The deal determined what the timing of debate on each amendment would be, as well as how many votes would be required to pass. Further, it set forth a loose calendar for when the Senate would debate and vote on these amendments.

The normally very sharp McJoan at Daily Kos was triumphant when describing the agreement in a post titled "FISA Fight: Dems didn't cave!" Everybody dance! Yet, just because you say it doesn't make it true.

First, this can't be about caving or not caving. Is it possible to cave when the legislation you're working with already prevents you from winning? I mean, how much lower could we go than having the SSCI bill as the underlying bill? Adding retroactive immunity provisions that also cut billion dollar checks for the telecom companies, or perhaps adding a provision that would require all Americans to reverse the peep-hole on their front doors to ensure government agents can always look in on what we're up to in the privacy of our own homes would have been a bad outcome of the negotiations in the Senate. But that's just not what this was about.

I'll come back to how we were fucked from word go by Harry Reid in a moment.

Second, one of the areas that Dems are purported to have held strong was in the vote thresholds for key amendments. Amendments on retroactive immunity, sequestration, bulk collection, reverse targeting, and substitution all will require 51 votes to pass. Amendments on minimization, exclusivity, and a four year sunset require 60 votes. All well and good if you think the goal is getting up or down votes, period. But the GOP gave us simple majority on areas that they know we won't come close to winning. They're not conceding anything and we're not gaining anything. They did not cave because they had already won; we didn't not cave because it just doesn't matter. The areas that we have a chance of getting 51 votes were, without fail, bumped to 60 vote requirements. In short, the vote totals are set in such a way that we can't count on passing on damned amendment to make this bill better.

Third, the debate in the Senate started today. Some voting may start tonight, but the majority of the votes will be held tomorrow, on February 5th. Super Fucking Tuesday. This guarantees that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain will not be there. It also makes it possible that Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsay Graham will not be in the Senate to vote. That's up to four certain Democratic votes and up to three other potentially good votes.

Even if you contend that the entire Democratic caucus will hold together on all simple majority amendments (which is highly unlikely given Harry Reid's inability to whip the caucus), you've immediately gone from needing one to needing three Republicans to vote with the Democrats for amendments to pass. That is, Mitch McConnell succeeded in making passage of the 51 vote amendments at least three times harder by getting the debate to happen early this week and not later in the week. I have zero clue why Harry Reid would concede this schedule. None. It makes no sense and it assured that we will lose.

The only logical explanation for this timing is that Harry Reid does not want to improve the SSCI bill, that he wants to give Bush and Cheney exactly what they want, to the letter without running the risk of anything being added to the underlying bill that would cause Overlords Bush and Cheney to raise an eyebrow in disapproval.

Lastly, the fundamental problem is the underlying bill. The failure to pass a good bill was cemented when Harry Reid decided to bring the SSCI bill as the underlying bill, as opposed to the better SJC bill or the House RESTORE Act. Once Reid chose the horrendous, Dick Cheney-Approved SSCI bill, the fight was lost. Every single Democratic-offered amendment would have to pass to make the SSCI bill start to resemble the SJC bill -- which isn't going to happen. This raft of amendments, this jubilant "deal" bargained late into the night from the Republicans is a nothing more than a smoke screen needed to obscure a complete failure of Democratic leadership.

Getting up or down votes on some amendments will allow unprincipled Democrats like Reid, Durbin, and Schumer to say, "Hey, we tried and we lost. The votes weren't there for us to do the right thing. What more could we have done?" I say: had you done your jobs, we would have won. Had you cared more about the Constitution than what ads the NRSC might run this fall or what asshats like Bill Kristol or Rich Lowery will say if you had the temerity to play a strong hand, we would have won. Had you done something as simple as making the SJC bill or the RESTORE Act the underlying bill, we would have won.

But you didn't do your jobs and you didn't use your power as leaders of the Democratic caucus to ensure that democratic principles win the day.

The end result is telecoms will get immunity, the President will get more authority, and the American people will have to watch what they say on the phone or write in an email, because they can be sure the government will be listening. Somewhere Ari Fleischer is smiling.

After seven painful years of the Bush administration and their Republican yes-men in Congress shredding the Constitution and abusing every iota of power they have been given to run the government, you would think Democrats would realize that there is nothing more dangerous than giving the Bush administration more power. Anyone who has paid attention knows what they do when they have discretion and no oversight, except the handful of impotent, piddling pushovers we're cursed with at the top of the Democratic Senate leadership.

We haven't officially lost yet, but the Democratic leadership in the Senate has done everything in their power to assure that we will. Worse still, they tried to convince us that they stood strong while the Republicans caved. Where I come from, it's not considered polite to piss on someone's head and tell them it's raining. Apparently people aren't so kind in Searchlight, Nevada.