FISA Dead, News At 11

The President's warrantless wiretapping is 90% complete to being made retroactively legal, thanks to every Republican senator and 18 cowardly Democrats (list here). Boy, Richard Nixon was truly born a few decades too soon.

You'll recall that, following the December '05 revelations about the warrantless wiretapping (a violation of federal law, if not the fourth amendment as well), everyone was outraged, and there were rumblings of impeachment. Their rationales for this never (and still don't) hold water. But then the GOP spin and fear machine roared at full blast, scaring away critics. Talk of punishment ended, and the media narrative became indistinguishable from White House talking points. The issue was kicked around in Congress for nearly two years, before a bill was finally passed last August giving the President his way. Democratic leadership insisted this was just a temporary setback-- hey, they had vacations to get to-- and promised to get back to the issue when the 2008 session began in January. They kept their word and worked hard to pass... an even more acquiescent bill.

But this is par for the course. As Dahlia Lithwick says in her waterboarding article-

"First, the administration breaks the law in secret. Then it denies breaking the law. Then it admits to the conduct but asserts that settled law is not in fact settled anymore because some lawyer was willing to unsettle it. Then the administration insists that the basis for unsettling the law is secret but that there are now two equally valid sides to the question. And then the administration gets Congress to rewrite the old law by insisting it prevents the president from thwarting terror attacks and warning that terrorists will strike tomorrow unless Congress ratifies the new law. Then it immunizes the law breakers from prosecution."

Glenn Greenwald has the definitive take on this issue, similarly concluding that-

"As always, when it comes to the most radical Bush policies, the GOP lines up lock-step behind them, and the Democrats split, always with more than enough to join the Republicans to ensure passage. That's the process that is called 'bipartisanship'."

It's up to the House now to stop this mess, but I wouldn't count on it. Barring a miracle there, this fight is over for at least the remainder of Bush's presidency.

[PS- For those keeping score on this sort of thing, Sen. Obama did show up, and voted against this mess. Sen. Clinton was one of two Senators who didn't show-- Sen. Graham is in Iraq-- as she was too busy CPR-ing her campaign in Texas.]