A Win For democracy In The Senate Today

The war is far from over, but the United States scored a huge victory today when an uphill battle to extend the debate on FISA got more than enough votes. The Republicans fight for cloture was defeated 48-45 (should have been 49-46 but Sen Landrieu D-LA changed her vote!). Now Feingold and Dodd will be able to introduce their amendment to strip retroactive immunity from the bill.

Seeing Harry Reid fight for this now as opposed to his obstruction in December is a testament to people power. He probably had no idea that people outside the beltway actually cared about retroactive immunity, so when the public outcry began, he had to reconsider. So even though he made it harder for us (with the craziness in December of not just introducing the bill without the immunity) a month ago, he was firmly on our side today. And even Senators that didn't vote our way last week changed their minds today (like Sen. Bayh and McCaskill) and decided to vote like Democrats.

Congratulations to them for seeing the light....and to all of you that fought to have your voices heard and make Bush (by default) and the telecoms stand in court and be held accountable for their criminal actions that have subverted our Constitution.