More Surprises on FISA

This seems to me like a dumb move.

McConnell and Reid are on the Senate floor trading verbal blows over the most recent obstructionist move by the Republicans. They have tied up what was supposed to have been quick consideration of the economic stimulus package by invoking 30 more hours of debate, using the argument that they got it too late to fully consider it. They're actually raising hell about low-income heating assistance being "slipped" into the bill. Heartless bastards.

Reid is as steamed as I've ever seen him, and is actually sounding like us in talking about the important constitutional issues and executive overreach on FISA. He's arguing that McConnell is using this stall tactic to try to run out the clock on the 15 day extension of FISA, thereby trying to get us back to the position we were in last August, forcing through a bad bill under strict time constraints.

This means that we are pretty unlikely to see any votes on FISA before Thursday. Which means that we could get past Super Tuesday and perhaps have a full Dem caucus in DC when the votes happen.

What the heck is wrong with Republicans? They're going to waste the opportunity to ram through a FISA bill with amnesty for the phone companies and without proper minimization procedures under cover of Super Tuesday darkness? It's pretty clear that they set the vote standard high enough for all the amendments to fail. Are they that concerned about ensuring that poor people freeze to death that they'd waste this opportunity?

Maybe they did a whip count and saw that one of those poison pill amendments would pass. But surely Bush can signing statement those away. I think that even a wet noodle like Harry Reid isn't going to have his back pushed up against the wall forever. At this point the Republicans are putting the strategy of letting the Protect America Act expire back in play. Why would they do that?

UPDATE: OK, so there will be some votes tomorrow. And one of them is DiFi's exclusivity amendment that needs 60 votes, and without Clinton, Obama, and probably Kennedy, that's not going to happen. Other amendments need a majority vote, so it's not as crucial for the Presidentials to be there.

Even Russ Feingold seems resigned:

What's the status of your amendments? It's been suggested that in the consent agreement to allow debate, Republicans are allowing straight majority votes only on amendments they know will fail—including yours.

We're trying to make a record here, and to show who voted for what. My prediction is this thing will go through; it will be challenged and go through the courts. And eventually a Supreme Court with something like seven Republican-appointed judges will strike down the worst parts of it. This is a long-term battle to protect the rights of the American people.

Sigh.