Update: Everything failed cloture. McConnell's bad amendment failed and so did Reid's good-ish 30-day extension. Which means that nothing has changed and we're back to where everything was last week. Except that now President Bush has some nice fodder for his speech. Updated update: Senators Boxer and Feinstein voted against cloture on McConnell's and for cloture on Reid's extension. Good votes all.
All sorts of interesting developments on the FISA debate over the weekend as we swing into the next phase of the showdown. First, the New York Times blasted leading Senate Democrats in an editorial for even considering an extension of Bush's protections. It also went ahead to say what so many of us know already: the notion that amnesty for telecom companies is anything but an attempt to cover up what this administration has been up to is...well...crazy. The President contends that amnesty is necessary to get cooperation in the future, but it just doesn't pass the smell test. If the law is followed, it's not a problem. And if there's any question about legality, the time to sort it all out isn't well after the fact. That's the whole point of having a FISA court in the first place.
Senator Feinstein holds one of the votes that could be vacillating this week as FISA winds through vote after vote. Call her and speak your mind about the ugly notion of providing amnesty to the telecoms. She has many phone numbers:
202-224-3841 (Washington, DC)
310-914-7300 (Los Angeles)
415-393-0707 (San Francisco)
619-231-9712 (San Diego)
559-485-7430 (Fresno)
Either way, here we find ourselves. Tim Tagaris noted over at OpenLeft that President Bush will veto any temporary extension of FISA. Which means a lot of things, but the major one is that we can expect some theatrics. There's a State of the Union address coming soon, and as a result there's a full chamber of Senators in town. Including the ones with names like Clinton, McCain, and Obama. Senators like that bring cameras, and Senators like cameras.
So here are the benchmarks to be watching for. Senators Clinton and Obama will be joining with most (hopefully all) Democrats against cloture on Mitch McConnell's odious offering on FISA. That's at 4:30pm eastern and is a good start. Reid will be looking to pass a 30-day extension (the one Bush would apparently veto). For now, this is the big one.
Rubber hits the road AFTER the State of the Union when there's no fodder for the speech to be had. The President is likely to establish the framework for the rest of the week during his speech, and it's later in the week that Dodd's filibuster will likely come to a head. As a result, it will be when we get the real test of who stands where and who is willing to lead on this issue.
And yes, I'll be keeping at least one eye on Senator Feinstein there. She's been pretty willing to buy the line of crap about telecom amnesty being important, which quite frankly it isn't. When it really comes down to it, where will she be? We're gonna find out.
