In an interview on Democracy Now! this morning, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) spoke about the FISA bill that passed the House yesterday:
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe the legislation that the Senate is considering, is expected to pass by Friday?
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: Well, this is a great blow to the rights of the American people. And much of the publicity has been about a very important aspect: giving these telephone companies immunity that cooperated with the President’s illegal program. We think that should be decided based on current law, not some kind of a retroactive immunity. But that’s essentially what this bill does.
FEINGOLD (cont.): But you know what? Even worse are the provisions of the bill that will make it very easy for the government to essentially suck up the communications, all communications of Americans that go overseas, whether it’s an email or a text message or a phone call to a daughter, junior year abroad, or a child who’s in Iraq or a reporter or a business associate. This is one of the greatest intrusions, potentially, on the rights of Americans protected under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution in the history of our country.
And unfortunately, it’s going to go through with the help of some Democrats. So this is a very, very sad day for our Constitution and for our rights, and it’s not justified by the terrorism issue, because we do not have any problem at all with going after anybody that we have reasonable suspicions about. It has to do with sucking all this information into a huge database in a way that is very intrusive on the privacy of all Americans.
And Feingold doesn't mince words when he talks about the illegal spying that did occur (yes, it did, because if it didn't, then logically there would be no need for retro-immunity):
The President takes the position that under Article II of the Constitution he can ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We believe that that’s absolutely wrong. I have pointed out that I think it is not only against the law, but I think it’s a pretty plain impeachable offense that the President created this program, and yet this immunity provision may have the effect not only of giving immunity to the telephone companies, but it may also allow the administration to block legal accountability for this crime, which I believe it is.
Feingold then makes it clear that he is not calling for Bush and Cheney to be impeached, but thinks they should be censured, and he said that he, along with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CN), will force the Senate to adhere to all procedural rules in trying to pass FISA, including overcoming a filibuster:
GOODMAN: Senator Feingold, will you filibuster this bill?
FEINGOLD: We are going to resist this bill. We are going to make sure that the procedural votes are gone through. In other words, a filibuster is requiring sixty votes to proceed to the bill, sixty votes to get cloture on the legislation. We will also—Senator Dodd and I and others will be taking some time to talk about this on the floor. We’re not just going to let it be rubberstamped.
GOODMAN: Would you filibuster, though?
FEINGOLD: That’s what I just described.
It is a great interview, and I urge you to listen/watch the entire thing, as they discuss other topics.
If only Sen. Feingold had run for president.
(h/t to mofembot and Dood for the title edit)
Update [2008-6-24 13:10:42 by Spud1]:: Please see these two other diaries from this morning about Sen. Chris Dodd, here and here.
[Update 2]: Forgot about this: I try to always mention when I write about the illegal spying that Qwest Communications was the one major telecom that refused to cooperate with the Bush/Cheney administration's illegal spying request.