Pelosi and Reid cave on FISA ‘fix’

This has been rumored since last Friday, when I first blogged about it, but five days incubation time makes it less palatable, not more so.

There’s several interesting takes, starting with Carl Hulse at the NYT.

First, Hulse is reading a mythical alternative to the actual bill:

House and Senate leaders of both parties said negotiators were near a deal on extending the authority to track terror suspects overseas while protecting the civil liberties of Americans as spy agencies sift through cell phone calls and other electronic communications that did not exist when the surveillance law first came into being.

Punting the telco immunity issue to a court, especially if it gets punted to FISA court and not the U.S. district courts involved with telco suits, doesn’t protect MY civil liberties.

Then, there’s this wonderful comment by Harry Reid:

“They’re very close to working out a fix.”

Reid doesn’t want to touch the House with a 10-foot pole, but, as when the Senate passed its initial version of FISA renewal, with immunity, he’ll find some excuse like “Senate procedural rules” to take a pass on actually standing up for Americans.

Meanwhile, back at the House, Passive Pelosi™ is also ducking her responsibility:

“We want to pass a bill that will be signed by the president.”

Well, since Georgie-Porgie won’t sign a bill without telco immunity, you’ve officially thrown in your hand.

This, in turn gives further credence to the theory that you’ve “stuffed” Kucinich’s impeachment efforts for 18 months in part because YOUR ASS would be on the online on the warrantless wiretap counts.

That, then, reminds to remind you:

1. There’s a petition to remove Pelosi from the Speakership.
2. Cindy Sheehan is still running against Pelosi. You can check her website here here.

Finally, Glenn Greenwald has an excellent about what’s really at stake — long-term control of the House, and not necessarily for Democrats as a party, but the power of individual Dems such as Majority Leader Steny Hoyer:

What people like Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel are pursuing is the consolidation of their power so that they become entrenched and can control Congress for the next decade, at least. That's obviously their first and only objective, and they are willing to sacrifice anything that they perceive at all threatening to that goal — including efforts to stop the war in Iraq, basic constitutional liberties, protections against warrantless eavesdropping, and the equal and firm application of the rule of law.

And, to complete the hypocrisy, Glenn says Hoyer will actually vote against the bill when it comes up to wash his hands of it.