Political Bloviation

First we have this by way of Poltico.com:

Rockefeller predicts win in FISA fight over telecom immunity - The Crypt’s Blog - Politico.com
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is predicting the Senate will grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies as Congress takes up reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and other Democrats, however, are not backing down on their promise to filibuster the FISA bill over this issue.

The Intelligence Committee, chaired by Rockefeller, and the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), have approved differing versions of the FISA reauthorization bill, with the Intelligence panel supporting immunity and the Judiciary Committee rejecting it.

“I think we will prevail,” Rockefeller said on Wednesday, adding that he hoped the Senate will finish the bill by next week. The FISA legislation expires in February, and both President Bush and GOP congressional leaders have demanded new legislation be in place by that time.

“It’s a pretty bad idea to appear cocky,” Rockefeller noted. “I am not pessimistic.”

Rockefeller also rejected a potential compromise being floated by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would let a secret FISA court decide whether the telecom companies, who are being sued for going along with official requests from the Bush administration to cooperate with warrantless surveillance programs, acted properly.

Greenwald believes Rockefeller is basically pathetic:

Jay Rockefeller’s unintentionally revealing comments - Unclaimed Territory
For an entire year, Congressional Democrats have won absolutely nothing. They’ve given in to the White House on every one of its demands. Yet here is Jay Rockefeller strutting around declaring Victory and having to battle against feelings of cockiness because, finally, he is about to win something.

But ponder the “win” that is giving him these feelings of immense self-satisfaction. Is he finally accomplishing what Democrats were given control of Congress to do: namely, impose some checks and limits on the administration? No. The opposite is true. Rockefeller is doing the bidding of Dick Cheney. The bill that he is working for is the bill the White House demanded. Rockefeller is supported by the entire Bush administration, urged on and funded by the nation’s most powerful telecoms, and is backed by the entire GOP caucus in the Senate.

When Rockefeller smugly announces that he “thinks we will prevail,” the “we” on whose behalf he is so proudly speaking is Bush and Cheney, lawbreaking telecoms, and all Republican Senators. The only parties whom Rockefeller is so happily “defeating” are civil liberties groups and members of his own party. That is what is making him feel pulsating sensations of excitement and “smugness.”

I tend to agree. “Best Sycophantic Dance to the Opposition’s Tune” is not something to claim as a victory. It’s a sell out of the bedrock principles of both parties and constitution. The senator should be ashamed, but I suspect he’ll pocket some nice campaign contributions and dance on with his overweening smugness. He’s another democrat who ought to be opposed in the primaries he’s up for election in 2008. Sadly, he’d probably buy his seat with his personal fortune the same way he did originally in 1984.

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