Sen. Harry Reid: Specter NSA Bill Won't Be Passed
Senate Minority leader Harry Reid held a blogger conference call today. McJoan at Daily Kos has the details. Shorter version: Sen. Arlen Specter's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance bill will not pass. The Democrats will prevent it. McJoan says:
"...given the already expressed bipartisan opposition to the Specter legislation in the Senate, it seems that a filibuster will be unnecessary."
Blogger Glenn Greenwald asked Reid directly:
Sen. Reid stated flatly and unequivocally -- and I'm paraphrasing -- that the Specter bill was not going anywhere, that it would not be enacted. I then asked him how he could be so certain about that -- specifically, I asked where the 51 votes against the Specter bill would come from in light of the support it enjoys from both the White House and at least some of the ostensibly "independent" Republicans, exacerbated by the fact that all 10 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted in favor of it yesterday (at least they voted in favor of sending it to the Senate floor).
In response, Sen. Reid explained that our system does not allow every bill to be enacted simply because a majority supports it, that Senate rules allow minority rights to be protected, clearly alluding to a filibuster. Indeed, as part of that vow, Sen. Reid specifically referenced the fact that in the Senate, one does not need 50%, but only 40%, to block the enactment of a bill. He explained that rule existed to protect minority rights. When I asked him expressly whether the Democrats are committed to filibustering the Specter bill if doing so is necessary to defeat it, he said he thought that would not be necessary, but repeated that they would make sure the Specter bill did not become law. He was unequivocal about that a second time.
The ACLU explains what's in and what's in the bill:
S.2453, the "National Security Surveillance Act.....crafted by Vice-President Dick Cheney and Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) gives the president the option of complying - or not - with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the protections of the Fourth Amendment.
The bill would also: vastly increase the government's statutory power to examine all international phone conversations and emails, making warrantless surveillance of Americans' conversations the rule rather then the exception and expand the ability to conduct warrantless physical searches of Americans' homes.
The ACLU continues:
The ACLU has urged Congress to reject any legislation that would authorize the president's continued warrantless surveillance of Americans, as the Specter and DeWine bills would do, and has noted that Congress has failed to thoroughly investigate the secret programs authorized by the president....
"The approval of partisan bills to ratify the illegal spying on Americans demonstrates cowardly obedience to the president, to the detriment of the liberty and privacy of the American people and the rule of law," said Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy. "Stonewalling and illegal spying have been rewarded with the Senate Judiciary Committee's partisan approval of administration misconduct. Only Senator Feinstein's bipartisan bill would help restore the rule of law. We call on the Senate to stand up for the Constitution and reject the Big Brother bills as non-starters that give the administration a blank check."
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