RESTORE Act

The RESTORE Act is up for a vote today in the House. If it passes, it will be an important step, but a small one. Here's my take over at The American Prospect.

If President Bush refuses to budge on the corrective measures Democrats ask him to sign, Congress will be left with three choices: They can renew the Protect America Act in the same form they passed it in August; they can grant Bush even greater spying power; or they can let the August bill lapse altogether.

The last option will unleash a political firestorm. Democrats will be accused of killing Americans, and FISA will revert to its pre-August state, with all the well-documented inefficiencies and inadequacies that backslide entails.

And yet, that'll be the option with the least-terrible implications for American civil liberties.

Comments

Somebody need to teach the Dems that you don't prove how big and strong you are by caving in to morons.

Posted by: MikeJ on October 17, 2007 02:47 PM

A good summary of the action - before the Cantor amendment threat and the bill withdrawal.

I think you may hve given too much emphasis on how dangerous to the Dems letting the current but expiring amendment/law would be. It is time for hardball, and Bush/Cheney would be very exposed if the current amended law expired (including the telcos who clearly broke the law, along with Bush). Now that we know that domestic spying was going on before 9/11 under Bush, there's a very negative story just waiting to be made clear to the public.

Posted by: JimPortlandOR on October 17, 2007 10:47 PM

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