The FISA Vote; or, 'Well, that Sucked!'; or, an Excuse to Play a Cult-Inspiring Clip from Army of Darkness

Well, yesterday Harrogate held a conference call with bloggers around the nation, and everyone was asking, Harrogate, what about the FISA vote? Harrogate replied that he hasn't had much time to think about it, what with his Pulitzer-Caliber coverage of the WALL-E Wars as well as his Wildly Popular coverage of A-Rod's divorce. Still, a few utterances about FISA may be in order, here.

First of all, TalkLeft has been all over this for a while, which is no surprise since A)the issue is in Jeralyn's primary wheelhouse; and B)for the last couple of weeks it became increasingly apparent that on this issue, Hillary Clinton was going to look very, very good. And yea, Hillary did indeed rise up yesterday. To see the transcript of her post-vote comments go to TL's post here.

A snippet that Harrogate appreciates:

As a senator from New York on September 11, I understand the importance of taking any and all necessary steps to protect our nation from those who would do us harm. I believe strongly that we must modernize our surveillance laws in order to provide intelligence professionals the tools needed to fight terrorism and make our country more secure. However, any surveillance program must contain safeguards to protect the rights of Americans against abuse, and to preserve clear lines of oversight and accountability over this administration

Yeah, not bad Hill. But even slicker was her implicit effort to throw something of a bullwark around Obama, who has been relentlessly savaged over this issue by the Left Blogosphere which hitherto had lain uncritically prostrate at his feet. Obama even candidly ceded, at one point, an awareness that his embrace of these sweeping, anti-Fourth Amendment measures would be a "deal-breaker" for some.

But Democrats do not want this to be a "deal-breaker" between Obama and vectors of his base. Hillary yesterday sought to remind us all of the O'Reillyism that "reasonable people can disagree":

I applaud the efforts of my colleagues who negotiated this legislation, and I respect my colleagues who reached a different conclusion on today's vote. I do so because this is a difficult issue.

Of course, as is so often the case in the Senate, the real hero on this issue was, is, and will remain Russ Feingold.

For example:

Two and a half years after this illegal program became public, I cannot believe that we are still debating the legality of this program on the Senate floor, and that anyone seriously believes that merely notifying the Gang of Eight – while keeping the full intelligence committees in the dark -- somehow represents congressional approval.

Mr. President, it could not be clearer that this program broke the law, and this President broke the law. Not only that, but this administration affirmatively misled Congress and the American people about it for years before it finally became public. So if we are going to go back and discuss these issues that I thought had long since been put to rest, let’s cover the full history.

And:

Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure.

So I hope my colleagues will think long and hard about their votes on this bill, and consider how they, and their constituents, will feel about this vote five, ten or twenty years from now. I am confident that history will not judge this Senate kindly if it endorses this tragic retreat from the principles that have governed government conduct in this sensitive area for 30 years. I urge my colleagues to stand up for the rule of law and defeat this bill.

But his "colleagues," of course, did not "stand up for the rule of law." All that is left to say at this point is, in the immortal words of Ash, "Jack left town":