FISA shenanigans

Paul Kiel reports:

On the Senate floor today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered a 30-day extension to the Protect America Act, the administration's surveillance bill that expired two weeks ago.

Given that the President and Republicans have been making speeches and running ads claiming that the nation is at risk because Democrats let the law lapse, you might say it's a reasonable proposition. Just yesterday, the President said that it's "important" for the American people to "understand that no renewal of the ... the Protect America Act is dangerous for the security of the country."...

When Reid offered the measure as a unanimous consent measure, the Republicans objected.

I don't get the gambit here. Reid knows the Republicans oppose extending PAA at this point. And I think the idea must be that he wants to keep them on the record, blocking an extension when they're also saying we're in danger of attack and the telecoms need immunity. But I also think much of that detail is lost on people who don't follow the issue closely. By the same token, he's also contradicting himself (and in a way validating the president's claims) by offering to extend the odious PAA when he's on the record with the rest of the Democratic leadership saying that its expiration has left us no less safe.