Occam’s wallet
PointOfLaw Forum:
From Politico: “Dems Who Flipped On FISA Immunity See More Telecom Cash”: “House Democrats who flipped their votes to support retroactive immunity for telecom companies in last week’s FISA bill took thousands of dollars more from phone companies than Democrats who consistently voted against legislation with an immunity provision, according to an analysis by MAPLight.org.”
From the American Tort Reform Association: “As Senate Debates FISA, ATRA Notes Trial Lawyer Political Giving”: “So much of the media coverage of this developing story has, for months, all but ignored the obvious up-tick in trial lawyer lobbying and campaign contributions as they tried desperately to preserve dozens of potentially lucrative lawsuits against telecommunications companies that cooperated with the government in pursuit of terrorists after 9/11,” began ATRA communications director Darren McKinney. “Reporters and editorial writers didn’t hesitate to document the efforts of the telecoms to preserve in the legislation a degree of retroactive immunity from such lawsuits ….but a typical media consumer could have come away with the impression that such political activity was strictly one-sided.”
Darren’s media analysis — especially if extended to the blogs — is accurate. (You can read all of ATRA’s release in the extended entry.) But having closely watched the politics of FISA, it’s an unprovable leap to suggest campaign contributions changed minds, either direction. The House Democrats moved away from the position of no immunity for telecoms mostly because their Blue Dog cohort feared the political consequences of blocking effective surveillance.
Meanwhile, by a 80-15 vote, the Senate last evening voted to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act. AP story here.
UPDATE (9:55 a.m.): Some more thoughts, including on Sen. Hatch’s legal analysis, are at the NAM’s blog, Shopfloor.org, here.
As Senate Debates FISA, ATRA Notes Trial Lawyer Political Giving
Urges Media…