In terms of the roll call vote,
McCain hasnt voted on any bill in the Senate since April....that way he can take credit for bills that pass that he opposed..like the recent GI Bill.
In terms of the FISA bill...as bad as it is with the retroactive immunity for telecomms, it still is an improvement over the Protect America Act by:
codifying the fact that FISA provides the sole legal authority for wiretaps (no more claiming that an AUMF provides that authority)
providing greater standards of "reasonable cause" for the FISA court to issue warrants for wiretaps
providing greater oversight of the FISA warrant process
provides far more restrictions on "reverse targeting" of US citizens
IMO, the 30-40 civil lawsuits against the telecomms would never have seen the light of day under any circumstances. I believe criminal sanctions against the major perpetrators (Bush/Gonzales) is still a possibility.
And my friends farther left than me are over reacting and are assuming that the next president will show the same blatant disregard for the law as Bush and the next Congress will be as negligent in its oversight as the Republican Congress was between 2001 and 2005 when the illegal warrantless wiretaps occured.
In the end, I pretty much agree with Feingold's conclusion, the most outspoken opponent of the bill in the Senate, although I think he is over reacting as well (for the reasons I noted above):
Quote:
Feingold conceded that public disappointment following gains for Democrats in the 2006 elections was understandable, but said that a Democratic president, "in particular, Barack Obama, should allow us to greatly change this mistake."
"Barack Obama believes in the Constitution," he continued. "He's a constitutional scholar. I believe that he will have a better chance to look at these powers that have been given to the executive branch, [even though] he'll be running the executive branch.
I think he will understand and help take the lead in fixing some of the worst provisions."
"I do think that people have a right to be disappointed," he went on, "but they also have a right to hope for change--on this issue, in particular--starting in January."
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