Dodd Leads on Spying, Clinton & Obama Follow

Chris Dodd drew a line in the sand last week, pledging to filibuster any legislation that grants immunity to telephone companies that broke the law by spying on Americans. Now Dodd's leadership has drawn two more Democrats into the fight: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Both say they will back a filibuster of the surveillance bill in its current form, as TPM's Greg Sargent reports.

Joe Biden and Russ Feingold had already announced their support for Dodd's plan, so there could be a real fight here. On one side are the 'Rage and Cave Democrats, like Jay Rockefeller, who talk about their outrage over Bush's policies, only to cave on the Senate floor. On the other side are leaders like Chris Dodd, who is using the power of his office and the platform of his campaign to defend the Constitution. (Dodd has offered similar campaign leadership on Iraq , as my colleague John Nichols reported.)

This battle is headed straight for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who can honor Dodd's "hold" by keeping the bill off the Senate floor. It's still unclear why Reid would want to provide a sweeping grant of retroactive immunity to companies that may have illegally participated in domestic spying. Why should they evade all accountability?

Reid acted outraged by President Bush's pardon of Scooter Libby, telling reporters, "Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war. Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone." But Bush waited until after a verdict to pardon one man. The Senate is poised to pardon scores of people before they ever see a jury. Now that would truly be "justice undone."

MoveOn.org and liberal bloggers are keeping the pressure on Obama and Clinton. The candidates' filibuster statements are a good start, but this fight is not about Senate strategy. It is about leadership and results. Obama and Clinton must show Democratic voters that they can effectively confront Harry Reid, reject Bush's veto threats and pass a strong intelligence bill with accountability and warrants -- not amnesty. If they can't succeed and lead their own political party, why should anyone expect them to lead the country?

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Ari Melber writes for The Nation, where this column first appeared. Check out The Nation's Campaign Blog for more news and commentary.

Comments

[cynara]

Better late than never, we need all the Senators on the constitution's side of this we can get, those that are running for President and those that aren't.

[Pdubya]

Oh?

google HR Bill 3835 The American Freedom Agenda Act.

write your representatives and get this bill passed!

blue dog dem for ron paul

[klondiker]

I guess Obama and Hillary's focus group results came in just in time...

Tsk, tsk. No leadership on this issue from either of these front-runners.

[Ozarks]

Glad to see "some" democrats besides Dodd exhibiting backbone concerning the 4th Amendment. It will be nice to see what happens in the ensuing 2 years and after Bush and the current VP office holder are stripped of their present political power and cover. Hopefully they have to testify in multiple judicial and admin courts and hearings regarding the illegal wiretaps by the phone companies .Too bad Harry Reid is not one of the "some democrats" but maybe he won't get reelected whenever he next has to run for office.

[Poboy]

They could also lead in the filibuster against the Southwick nomination to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals!

[whimsicalpig]

As I have already communicated to my Senators, Clinton and Schumer, that I will not support them in any future endeavor if they do not speak out against the confirmation of the current Attorney General Nominee who has already stated that the Unitary President can break whatever law he pleases as long as it is in the "interest" of national security in his role as commander-in-chief. There are so many constitutional issues to be confonted that this could turn out to be a mighty long filabuster.