Thursday, January 31, 2008

Retromunity. Holding Everyone Hostage Part II

Right now Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Harry Reid are in negotiations as to which amendments will be voted on by the full Senate. McConnell wants only the original three amendments that were to be tabled, which are all largely technical, not substantive, plus four others. One of the others is not Dodd-Feingold to strip the bill of Title II, which is the retromunity. Majority Leader Reid is being reported by TPM to have demanded a vote on D-F. This has been confirmed by a separate source. That is Reid has indeed said it would be "ludicrous" not to vote on it. Reid has publicly backed the amendment, and opposes retromunity.

On an up or down vote, retromunity is probably doomed. It noteworthy that it is a provision which is so important to Bush and McConnell that they are willing to bring the rest of the bill to the brink of allowing the PAA to sun set, it's supposed protections not being as important to national security as protecting illegal wiretapping and data transfers.

Once again... confirmed that Majority Leader Reid s demanding a vote on stripping the PAA extension of retromunity, and McConnell is balking, offering only marginal votes on other amendments. Reportedly bulk collection and reverse targeting are also not on the McConnell list of Amendments he wants to allow a vote on.

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