Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats left Washington, DC for their district’s comforts without passing the FISA reform bill. In fact, they didn’t even debate the Senate bill that passed with 68 votes two days earlier. Pelosi’s collection of irresponsible legislators should be tarred and feathered in their hometown and national press every day that they aren’t in session. Investors’ Business Daily has started that tar and feathering with this editorial. Here’s the key paragraph:

Congress has had nearly seven months to renew and update this vital law. Yet just look at what the House of Reprehensibles was wasting its time with last week, when it should have been working night and day on FISA.

They didn’t stop there:

The Senate-passed bill that Pelosi and House Democrats consider less important than wedding receptions and steroids abuse got a bipartisan majority of 68 votes in the Senate last week. Much of it was written by a liberal Democrat, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The bill gives U.S. intelligence agencies “the tools they need to track down terrorists,” as Rockefeller noted. It also provides retroactive immunity to telecom carriers being sued for assisting in the terrorist surveillance program.

Firms such as AT&T (NYSE:SBT) (NYSE:T) , Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) and Verizon (NYSE:VZC) (NYSE:VZ) face lengthy litigation, and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, spearheaded by the ACLU all because they helped save lives.

As Rockefeller, a foe of most of the president’s policies in the global war on terror, pointed out, “The companies believed their cooperation was necessary, legal and would help stop future terrorist attacks.”

Pelosi’s bunch care more about collecting campaign contributions from their nutroots crazies than they care about preventing the next terrorist attack. (I’m not saying that they don’t care about national security. I’m simply saying that their actions show that they just put a higher priority on collecting the crazies’ campaign contributions than on national security.)

Ms. Pelosi and the Democratic leadership will attempt to spin this but the American people have just witnessed with their own eyes Pelosi’s Democrats walk away from solving an important problem. Rest assured that that will become a campaign issue, if not the major campaign issue this fall.

You can rest assured that the freshmen Democrats that got elected in swing districts will take alot of heat for sitting on their hands. Freshmen Democratic senators stepped out on several issues. Why aren’t freshmen Democratic representatives stepping out and taking the initiative on this? Here in Minnesota, we should be asking why Tim Walz did nothing while the Protect America Act expired. Ditto with CAIR’s congressman Keith Ellison. They should be asked if they just didn’t care about national security or if they sat silent to be obedient to Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers respectively. As such, we’re left with no other option than to conclude that they’re lapdogs for their superiors.

If they were bipartisan leaders, they would’ve reached out to Republicans to force a vote on the Senate bill passed last week. They didn’t. Frankly, I didn’t expect much from either of these gents. I knew that it was all posturing when Walz said that he’d be “an independent voice for Minnesota.” Since getting elected, he’s voted the way Nancy Pelosi has wanted him to. That isn’t to imply that she’s had to order him to vote that way. I think it’s played out that way because he’s far more liberal than the image that he’s tried to craft.

Elsewhere, Republicans should be stepping up the pressure on Joe Donnelley, Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill of Indiana, Nancy Boyda in Kansas, Heath Shuler in North Carolina, Jason Altmire and Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania why they didn’t take constructive steps in protecting us. If they aren’t going to take national security issues seriously, then that needs to be repeatedly pointed out.

I’d specifically recommend that we push these representatives on the issue of immunity for the telecoms. If A T & T, Verizon and other telecoms have to worry about getting sued for diing their part in preventing terrorist attacks, they’ll stop cooperating with the NSA. At that point, our intelligence gathering will become much more difficult and less productive.

Any representative that doesn’t take their most important responsibility seriously shouldn’t be part of the 111th Congress in 2009. We’re in a fight with a determined enemy. To do anything less than our best isn’t acceptable.

Technorati Tags: Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, Nancy Pelosi, John Conyers, Nancy Boyda, Heath Shuler, Joe Sestak, Democrats, National Security, FISA,
NRCC, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. If telecoms are issued warrants to conduct wiretapping to protect the country from terrorists, they wouldn’t be sued and America can continue to be secure. Simple.

   Comment by Liem — February 17, 2008 @ 1:47 pm

2. I cant for the life of me understand what the hell these great reformers are afraid of! Heck the CIA can listen to my phone all day long! I haven’t got anything to hide.

   Maybe the cowards and liars in Congress do!

   Comment by T. A. Gray — February 17, 2008 @ 10:58 pm

3. WSJ says it better than I can.

   Every time he speaks, Barack Obama promises to overcome “bitter partisanship and petty bickering.” Good luck with that. The House Speaker from San Francisco is obviously running her own campaign to gain control of the White House. The needs of the party’s Presidential candidates appear to be a distraction from this.

   Comment by T. A. Gray — February 18, 2008 @ 10:25 am

4. This is the meat of the email I sent last week to my state congressman. I also called all others locally or in DC to let them know my concern, as the members outside of my district do not receive emails (just the democrats, by the way):

   [Dear (House member name),

   I am writing to ask for your help in passing the Protect America Act today! The following reasons are why I am writing to you today:

   The Senate Bill, Passed By A Strong Bipartisan Majority, Is An Important Piece Of Legislation That Provides Our Intelligence Professionals The Tools They Need To Protect The Country

   *The Senate bill gives the Intelligence Community the tools it needs to keep the Nation safe.

   *The Senate bill would provide liability protection for those companies being sued for billions of dollars only because they are believed to have assisted the Government in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.

   *The Senate bill is a carefully crafted, bipartisan bill and is the result of months of consideration and negotiation in the Senate.

   *The Senate bill preserves the strong protections for the liberties of Americans.

   * The Senate bill provides a new role for the FISA Court in approving surveillance targeted at Americans abroad.

   *The Senate bill substantially increases the role of the FISA Court in overseeing acquisitions of foreign intelligence under the bill – even though the acquisitions are targeted at foreign targets overseas.

   *The Senate bill substantially increases Congressional oversight...

   ...Thank you very much for your expediency in this matter.]

   (I encourage everyone to contact your state congressman in whatever way you can!)

   Comment by NW Chris — February 18, 2008 @ 10:37 am

5. Your so polite!

   Comment by T. A. Gray — February 18, 2008 @ 11:56 am

6. Anyone know where the nearest fallout shelter is? We just might need it now.

   What’s even more galling is that Pelosi and her crew found the time to pass the bill outlawing CIA waterboarding–a technique used only 3 terrorists–but refused to let the PAA come to the floor. Utterly shameful.

   Comment by The Surfing Conservative — February 18, 2008 @ 6:09 pm

7. “Your so polite!” T. A. Gray

   T.A., I had to work at it, but tried to just stick to the facts despite my emotions. :)

   Comment by NW Chris — February 18, 2008 @ 6:37 pm

8. The nearest fallout shelter is right where we left it during the McCarthy era.

   Is waterboarding torture if it’s used against Americans?

   Comment by Liem — February 19, 2008 @ 1:33 am

9. By the way, to be sure of not being accused of plagarism by anyone (got Obama on my mind), I gladly give credit to where credit is due in my letter to my congressman post above. I retrieved that info from the White House website in this article:

   http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080122-2.html

   It’s a good read if you haven’t done so yet!

   Comment by SoCal Chris — February 19, 2008 @ 11:33 am

10. Personal opinion is that waterboarding isn’t torture no matter whom it is used on, but it is an extremely effective interrogation technique. No wonder liberals (including McCain) want it discredited and discarded.

    Comment by Carlos — February 19, 2008 @ 6:46 pm

11. Anybody who is old and salty enough to have gone through a Navy CPO’s initiation in BF years (Before Feminization) will have suffered indignities more intimidating than a simple water boarding.

    Comment by T. A. Gray — February 19, 2008 @ 10:18 pm