1115.org

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That lovable cuddly senior Democrat, Senator Harry Reid, is still determined to give President Bush exactly what he wants in terms of telecom immunity. That is to say, our Harry thinks it is a wonderfully excellent idea for Congress to decree that the telecom companies which broke the law by agreeing to violate the privacy rights of their customers, and furnishing information about them and their telephone and/or internet communications to the federal government without proper legal authorization, should be retroactively protected from lawsuits for aforesaid illegal actions. Before anyone even knows exactly what illegal actions the telecoms may have actually engaged in. It’s a secret, blanket cover-up form of amnesty, that’s what it is. And amnesty, as we all know, is a very bad word; it may well be the only 4-letter word that takes 7 letters to spell. However, for some strange reason, this guy is standing up and saying: “I’m Harry Reid, and I approve this sh*t.”

That strong-jawed Democrat, Senator Chris Dodd, is still determined to do whatever it takes to derail Reid’s compact with the forces of darkness:

Speaking to reporters today, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) said that he would again filibuster any bill that a provision in it granting retroactive immunity to the telecoms — or as he put it, “use every tool at my disposal as a Senator” to stop it. So if you were wondering whether anything has changed since Dodd dropped out of the presidential race, nothing has.

So what remains to be seen is whether Reid is an irresistible force, or whether Dodd is an immovable object. My money’s on Dodd.

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Reid, incidentally, seems to be running for Biggest Asshole in Congress. After routinely allowing Republicans — over and over again — to mount high-end-auction style filibusters (where you signal your intent to filibuster by the merest twitch of one eyebrow, and Reid accepts your filibuster bid), he has decided that Dodd will have to talk himself to death in order to mount his filibuster of the retroactive immunity bill:

Harry Reid — who has (a) done more than any other individual to ensure that Bush’s demands for telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping powers will be met in full and (b) allowed the Republicans all year to block virtually every bill without having to bother to actually filibuster — went to the Senate floor yesterday and, with the scripted assistance of Mitch McConnell and Pat Leahy, warned Chris Dodd, Russ Feingold and others that they would be selfishly wreaking havoc on the schedules of their fellow Senators (making them work over the weekend, ruining their planned “retreat,” and even preventing them from going to Davos!) if they bothered everyone with their annoying, pointless little filibuster.

To do so, Reid announced that, unlike for the multiple filibusters from Republican colleagues, he would actually force Dodd and company to engage in a real filibuster.

I doubt very much that Dodd needs advice from anyone else, but how dramatic would it be if he just talks and talks, refusing to yield the floor to anyone else, till he actually collapses in exhaustion? That strikes me as the best form of revenge against Reid’s nonsense. The twerp will never be able to live it down.

*** Update, 7:52 am ***

I don’t think I’ve linked to this before, but Russ Feingold has an excellent fact sheet on his web page where he addresses clearly and concisely some “Myths and Reality Regarding Immunity”. Check it out; it does a great job of putting the retroactive immunity issue in perspective.