Temporary Success on the Senate Telecom Bill and Retroactive Immunity

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Sen. Harry Reid pulled the Senate Telecom Bill yesterday, after the opposition put up by Senator Chris Dodd and a few others (Sens. Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Maria Cantwell, John Kerry, Ron Wyden, Tom Harkin, Benjamin Cardin and Robert Menendez). Dodd had placed a hold on the bill to prevent it from being brought up because of its provisions for giving telecom companies complete retroactive immunity for having broken the law by illegally providing the administration with client information without court warrant or legislative authorization (see Glenn Greenwald for excellent reporting on the issue). Dodd also threatened to filibuster attempts to pass this version of the bill. He did this as a response to activity from netroots and grassroots opponents of the bill. Reid had the bill brought up nevertheless, ignoring the hold placed by his fellow veteran Democratic Senator, despite having continuously respecting the holds placed on bills by Republicans and administration supporters.

At this point, Reid’s pullback of the bill is a victory of sorts for those who have opposed the excessive surveillance and retroactive immunity provisions of the bill. However, it is only a temporary victory and the issue will come up again in January. And it seems clear that the Repubs and the Dem leadership will very likely be working on ways to overcome Dodd’s opposition and threatened filibuster. Be prepared – they will.

One suggestion I would make would be for those who are against this provision of retroactive immunity for illegal actions, who are registered to vote as Democrats, and who get mailers from the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee asking for contributions - send them back a note saying that you will be making contributions, but they will instead be going to Russ Feingold’s Progressive Patriot Fund. AND THEN DO IT. If enough people were to do that, who knows, it just might once again cause some Senators to take notice of a bit of dissatisfaction at the grassroots level.

A Tale of Two Elections

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Over the weekend two elections occurred in far flung regions of the world. In oil rich Venezuela, which the Bush administration has derided as "a menace to democracy in Latin America" under the regime of Hugo Chavez, and in which the administration has been seen as having played a role in the attempt to overthrow by way of a military coup the elected government, the election concerned a series of constitutional amendments which would, among other things, have eliminated term limits for the President, and provided the office with additional administrative powers. Opponents criticized this as a grab for power and insisted that it would make Chavez a President for life. This would seem to be a bit far fetched since there are no term limits for most parliamentary chief executives, and even in the U.S. there were no term limits for the President until the 22nd Amendment which was adopted in 1951. After the election, the "undemocratic" Chavez accepted the outcome by all accounts in a conciliatory manner when it turned out that the changes he sought were being defeated by a margin of approximately one an a half percent.

In Russia, where Vladimir Putin rules, a man who’s soul George Bush claimed to have seen into, and presumably found good, and with whom the president has been said to have formed a close personal relationship, the elections were found to be fraudulent by a number of observers from within and outside the country.

"European states expressed alarm over the outcome of Sunday's parliamentary poll after rights watchdogs said the campaign had been marred by biased media coverage and abuse of government resources in favor of Putin's United Russia.
But analysts said many European states now acknowledged that Moscow, whose cooperation the West wants over disputes from Iran to Kosovo, was increasingly impervious to outside criticism.
Sharper reaction came from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, seen as less close to Putin than that of her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder.
"Measured by our standards, it was neither a free, fair nor democratic election," said spokesman Thomas Steg. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Russia to probe abuses."

Bush has often spoken of his policies as being supportive of democracy for all people, regardless of culture and background. This weekend’s elections, clearly, if somewhat ironically outline the quality and the integrity of both his judgement, and his commitment to democratic process.