Posted on 02/20/2008 6:19:38 PM PST by T.L.Sink
A closed-door caucus of the Democrats took a risky political course. By 4 to 1, they instructed Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call President Bush's bluff on extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to continue eavesdropping on suspected foreign terrorists. She left town and refused to bring to the floor a bill approved overwhelmingly by the Senate. The reason for blocking the bill was retroactive immunity to protect from lawsuits private telecommunications firms asked to eavesdrop by the government. The recess by the House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the generous support of trial lawyers, the Democratic Party's most important financial base, would be more dangerous than losing the anti-terrorist issue to the Republicans. Big money is involved. 66 trial lawyers representing plaintiffs in the telecommunications suit have contributed $1.5 million to Democratic senators and causes. Of the 29 Democratic senators who voted against the FISA bill, 24 took money from the trial lawyers (as did the absent senators Clinton and Obama). Clearly, opposition to the bill derives less from phobia about tough anti-terror countermeasures than obeissance to generous trial lawyers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Let’s still act first and decide later...
“We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,”
- John F’n Kerry
sad but true. Like they say 99% of the lawyers give the other one a bad name.
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