The other day I received a phone call from a friend in Europe.  My first thought was that this conversation, originating in a foreign country to the US, would be more fodder for the illegal spying by the US surveillance state apparatus courtesy of the telecoms.

Telecoms, for which Bush is demanding retroactive immunity for their breaking the law, just as Bush has broken the law.

And he will probably get it, thanks to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as I explained in my 1/28/2008 posting, "FISA Floor Fight Harry Reid's Fault."

Reid brought to the Senate floor the Senate Intelligence Committee's (chaired by Jay Rockefeller, so called Democrat, from West Virginia who is in the pocket of telecoms) bill, that granted retroactive immunity to telecoms and other Bush demands as the base bill rather than the Senate Judiciary Committee's bill which did not and provided stronger oversight requirements.

The Senate Majority Leader also refused to honor the hold placed on the flawed FISA bill by fellow Democrat Senator Chris Dodd, even though he previously honored holds, even egregious ones, placed by GOP senators!

Reid exhibits another important example of the Democratic leadership's spinelessness and the damage wrought by erroneous bipartisanship.

As Glenn Greenwald wrote, "...'bipartisanship' is already rampant in Washington, not rare. And, in almost every significant case, what 'bipartisanship' means in Washington is that enough Democrats join with all of the Republicans to endorse and enact into law Republican policies, with which most Democratic voters disagree. That's how so-called 'bipartisanship' manifests in almost every case.

"On virtually every major controversial issue -- particularly, though not only, ones involving national security and terrorism -- the Republicans (including their vaunted mythical moderates and mavericks) vote in almost complete lockstep in favor of the President, the Democratic caucus splits, and the Republicans then get their way on every issue thanks to 'bipartisan' support. That's what 'bipartisanship' in Washington means."

Harry Reid also guaranteed that the Senate would acquiesce to Bush' demands on the FISA bill by brokering ".....a 'compromise' that mandated 60 votes for any amendment that had a chance of getting 50, and 50 votes for any amendment that didn't even have 40." as succinctly explained by Tim Tagaris.

As I have written before: "Harry Reid is some or all of the following: incompetent, a closet Republican, or, like Bushites, doesn't believe in the Constitution,  In any case, he should not be the Democratic Majority Leader any longer, despite his last minute attempts to try and overcome the justified anger of pro-Constitution Americans."

Reid is a spineless, SOB with a permanent minority psychosis, who has betrayed the Constitution, the rule of law, the American people, and the principles of the Democratic Party, again.

By the way, whatever happened to Dodd's filibuster?