RESTORE Act. An update.

Faced with the possibility that the House might pass a bill meant to strengthen the civil liberties of Americans, Republican Eric Cantor suggests nullifying the law by introducing an amendment that reads, "Today, we will be offering an amendment to the legislation to clarify that nothing in the bill “shall be construed to prohibit the intelligence community from conducting surveillance needed to prevent Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or any other foreign terrorist organization…from attacking the United States or any United States person.”

According to Greg Sargent, "the word from House Dem aides is that Cantor intends to introduce this as part of a motion to recommit "promptly," rather than "forthwith.""

Stripping away the mumbo-jumbo, our best understanding of this so far is that it would send the bill back to committee, rather than out on to the floor for a vote. This would bottle up the bill and delay the process.

It's unclear as yet how the House Dem leadership will respond.

One way they could respond is to make it extremely well known to every last member of the caucus that nobody is to vote "yeah" on any GOP bills, resolutions, amendments, etc., written in this spirit under any circumstances. That when asked to comment on their "nay" votes, they are to say something like, "the era in which Republicans cite the threat of terrorism or the specter of al Qaeda as a means of starting wars and eroding civil liberties is over." That if they break her rule, they do so at the likely cost of their committee seniority and any other grab-bag prizes that come with being a good foot soldier.

Then they could defeat this and other similar amendments without any fuss. And they wouldn't look like future roadkill every time a Republican like Eric Cantor took an unsurprising step like this. But that would take a bit of leadership and a real commitment to change.

Oh yeah. And spine.

Update on the update: Looks like they pulled the bill.