Can Obama thread the needle on the FISA vote?
Posted by Little Ms Purple at 7/9/2008 7:18 AM 
Categories: 2008 Election, Political strategies, All Posts
Categories: 2008 Election, Political strategies, All Posts
Given how much flack that Obama has gotten for supporting the current version of the FISA bill with telecom immunity intact, I've been wondering if there is a way for him to thread the needle... as in, still vote for that bill but reassure the grassroots/netroots that he means business when it comes to personal liberties vs. domestic surveillance.
Then I came across THIS article in the Baltimore Sun that gave me an idea... seeing, as the article reports, that there are so many other "secret" and "classified" domestic surveillance programs being conducted that DON'T fall under FISA and ARE infringing on our personal liberties, Obama could take the position that he is voting for the current incarnation of the FISA bill on National Security grounds that this surveillance needs to start back up under the rule of law. While taking that stand, he could then pivot to the point that there are many other eavesdropping programs that we don't know about outside of FISA, that he believes many of them infringe on personal liberties and that Bush 2.0 has overstepped the bounds of the law in terms of using the war on terror as an excuse to break the law with respect to peronal liberties. THEN he could promise that ALL domestic eavesdropping practices, if he is elected President, will have to be reviewd and reigned in to fall under the rule of law as he understood it as a Constitutional Law professor. Now, this doesn't solve the whole telecom immunity portion of the debate BUT it does shift the discussion to all of the other programs that we DON'T have an understanding or knowledge of to illustrate the damage Bush 2.0 has done to our personal liberties and the rule of law.
It's probably too long a way around the barn but it might be worth trying nonetheless.
Then I came across THIS article in the Baltimore Sun that gave me an idea... seeing, as the article reports, that there are so many other "secret" and "classified" domestic surveillance programs being conducted that DON'T fall under FISA and ARE infringing on our personal liberties, Obama could take the position that he is voting for the current incarnation of the FISA bill on National Security grounds that this surveillance needs to start back up under the rule of law. While taking that stand, he could then pivot to the point that there are many other eavesdropping programs that we don't know about outside of FISA, that he believes many of them infringe on personal liberties and that Bush 2.0 has overstepped the bounds of the law in terms of using the war on terror as an excuse to break the law with respect to peronal liberties. THEN he could promise that ALL domestic eavesdropping practices, if he is elected President, will have to be reviewd and reigned in to fall under the rule of law as he understood it as a Constitutional Law professor. Now, this doesn't solve the whole telecom immunity portion of the debate BUT it does shift the discussion to all of the other programs that we DON'T have an understanding or knowledge of to illustrate the damage Bush 2.0 has done to our personal liberties and the rule of law.
It's probably too long a way around the barn but it might be worth trying nonetheless.
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