Breaking: FISA passes cloture in Senate
posted at 7:30 pm on June 25, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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If Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold wanted a filibuster, they apparently failed to convince enough of their colleagues to join them. Reuters reports that the FISA compromise bill from the House got 80 votes to limit debate:
A White House-backed spy bill to protect telecommunication companies from billions of dollars in possible privacy lawsuits passed a Senate test vote on Wednesday and headed toward final congressional approval.
On a vote of 80-15, mostly Republican supporters of the bipartisan measure*, which would also implement the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. spy laws in decades, easily mustered the 60 needed to clear a Democratic procedural roadblock.
Overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives on Friday, the bill may win needed Senate concurrence before Congress begins a holiday break the end of this week.
A cloture vote today means a Friday vote, and that would allow Congress to send the bill for Bush’s signature by early next week. The paltry number of the opposition to the bill shows that the House version strengthened the hands of those who want FISA reform and telecom immunity, and showed how marginal the effort was to derail it.
How did Barack Obama vote? I’ll look for the data and include it in an update — but I think he was out of DC today and on the campaign trail.
Update: Obama was Not Voting, as was McCain. Here are the 15 who tried to block the bill:
Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)
Will the netroots forgive Obama for not rushing back to vote against cloture? If Dodd and Feingold could only muster 13 other votes, probably.
Update II: Hillary Clinton was also Not Voting. The other two who didn’t vote were Byrd and Kennedy, both of whom are (I believe) still out for medical reasons.
Update III: * – “mostly Republican supporters”? Well, by my count, the Yeas were 32 Democrats and 48 Republicans, which I guess could be called “mostly”, but that same kind of count would be called “bipartisan” in any other context. That means a majority of the Democratic caucus supported this bill, even without Hillary and Obama.
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Not voting: Obama, McCain, among others.
amerpundit on June 25, 2008 at 7:32 PM
Did Hillary vote?
HawaiiLwyr on June 25, 2008 at 7:35 PM
Heads are going to explode …
tarpon on June 25, 2008 at 7:37 PM
No she didn’t.
terryannonline on June 25, 2008 at 7:39 PM
HawaiiLwyr,
No she didn’t. Not surprising. Despite what everyone thinks she is still running for the nomination.
Nahanni on June 25, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Yes indeed. You can bet on it.
JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 7:45 PM
“Mostly Republicans”?
I don’t know the splint, but a whole busload of Dhimmicrats had to have sided with the Repubs.
davidk on June 25, 2008 at 7:46 PM
The list of Dhimmicrat Senators who are enemies of the United States are above. Every single one prefers the rights of a terrorist over your right to life. Of course, your life is only slightly more important to them than the life of an unborn fetus, but hey, who’s really counting them anyway.
I hope someday the American people will wake up and remember who voted to use the tools this country has to use, at almost zero cost to the nation, to fight Islamist terrorists abroad (not even in the US!!!), instead of placing a 2 Billion dollars machine and 157 men (a submarine) or a 100 million dollar machine and 15 men and women (an intelligence collection plane) in harm’s way every time they want to find out what our enemies are doing.
The Dhimmis above would rather sacrifice the blood of the Armed Forces AFTER the attack, than prevent the next one, at much greater cost. A few Billion dollars for trial lawyers is fine with them, though.
Congress. They disgust me.
Subsunk
Subsunk on June 25, 2008 at 7:47 PM
I think you-all are right.
davidk on June 25, 2008 at 7:48 PM
If the Republicans had any sort of killer instinct, they’d take over the Senate since they have the majority without those 2 buffoons present. However, I read (can’t remember where) they voluntarily waived 2 Republican votes in a show of bi-partisanship.
SouthernGent on June 25, 2008 at 7:50 PM
The question is, can McCain beat her?
JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 7:52 PM
64k$
davidk on June 25, 2008 at 7:54 PM
You, me, and 88% of the nation.
davidk on June 25, 2008 at 7:56 PM
Oh yeah, Hillary is DEFINITELY still running. Say the so-called “whitey tape” comes out (or some other racially charged Obamessiah scandal) a week before the convention. Look who’s standing there–It’s Hillary! We all know HillDog would kick our asses, so we better hope this comes out post-convention.
You’d think he’d bother to show up for an important vote like this.
malan89 on June 25, 2008 at 7:56 PM
Hey lefties! Quit your whimpering and suck it up! Given the Obamassiah’s past track record of avoiding any decision making (PRESENT!), why should he show up to vote? It’s not like it’s going to affect his paycheck.
GarandFan on June 25, 2008 at 8:02 PM
Is Dodd crying yet?
ctmom on June 25, 2008 at 8:19 PM
So, Dodd did not get an iphone from AT&T.
jdkchem on June 25, 2008 at 8:19 PM
In this day and age, why do they have to be present to vote anyway? Let them vote electronically.
JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 8:27 PM
Gee, only 19 posts here and over on HuffPo it’s moonbat revolt, nearing 2,000 posts. My favorite: “Stop it! I’m watching Keith and he seems to forgive Obama, why don’t we?” Fun reading the new Vote Nader! posts – have the “righwing trolls” overtaken Arianna’s place?
Marcus on June 25, 2008 at 8:47 PM
John was already assured of the outcome, so he kept his meeting with GayPatriot.
leftnomore on June 25, 2008 at 8:51 PM
Modern day traitors.
They’re un-American.
madmonkphotog on June 25, 2008 at 9:06 PM
From what I can tell, this appears to be a decent compromise but surely there must be others like me who are “uneasy” (for want of a better word) over the telcom immunity.
That is, the government can tell a private company or business to violate the rights of Americans – yes, for a good cause but also for a bad one – and that the government will forbid Americans from suing for compensatory damages.
I’m a little queasy about such actions.
SteveMG on June 25, 2008 at 9:07 PM
Nothing a little throat slitting won’t cure.
JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 9:13 PM
So, how do you we ensure that government won’t use this power for less-than-good reasons?
Men are not angels as Madison pointed out. Islamic men or American.
SteveMG on June 25, 2008 at 9:15 PM
How does FISA affect you at home?
JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 9:31 PM
This (my concern) isn’t about telcoms. Think beyond the specifics here.
The principle that the government can ask a private company to violate a person’s privacy rights (liberty, if you will) with the guarantee that the citizen won’t be able to sue for damages gives me pause.
SteveMG on June 25, 2008 at 9:40 PM
Not a private person. A foreigner under surveillance for terrorist connections. Or an American domestically (speaking unwittingly I hope) to someone under surveillance for terrorist activities.
Why don’t you want that? Why are you worried about privacy rights of foreigners under surveillance? What privacy rights?
You make it sound like the gov’t is going to listen to you and your wife talking to each other.
JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 9:43 PM
We can only dream of when, out of 80 votes, most are Republicans, like say 61.
I am surprised that the one Senator from my state, Washington, that I was sure would vote nay, Osama-Mama Patty Murray, voted for the bill. Our other
moronsenator, Maria “Don’t Drill in ANWR” Cantwell, did fulfill expectations and vote nay. *sigh* What’s it like to live in a Red State?Mallard T. Drake on June 25, 2008 at 9:48 PM
If it’s stupid or odiotic, you can count on Dodd being for it.
drjohn on June 25, 2008 at 9:48 PM
It’s nice to see an independant earning that label and thinking for themselves rather than towing a party line.
Oh, wait… Bernie.
askheaves on June 25, 2008 at 10:23 PM
This bill makes it tougher for 15 Senators to give away military secrets and marching orders to their Islamic terrorist buddys overseas.
Too damn bad those planes didn’t hit the house of congress and senate instead of WTC and Pentagon.
dhunter on June 25, 2008 at 10:31 PM
The usual hate, and want America to fail suspects:
ALL ARE SCUMMY DEMOCRATS
Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)
If any are up for re election…vote em out!
byteshredder on June 26, 2008 at 12:05 AM
Didn’t Obama vow to strip off the petitioned immunity for telecoms?
Just words!
Chuck Schick on June 26, 2008 at 12:21 PM
“Will the netroots forgive Obama for not rushing back to vote against cloture?”
Doesn’t “not voting” have the exact same effect as “voting against cloture”? They need 60 yes votes for cloture, and not voting is the same as voting no, right?
Kevin M on June 26, 2008 at 1:07 PM
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