Senator Bill Nelson of Florida voted with the GOP today to table — in effect kill — the Judiciary Committee version of FISA. In other words, he voted for the version of the bill that gives total immunity to the telephone companies for conspiring with administration officials to do a massive series of illegal wiretaps — even before 9/11. (Glenn Greenwald is great on this at Salon today and yesterday.)
How sad that even the less reactionary of my Senators believes the government should be able to conduct illegal wiretapping at will, and that its aiders and abettors in the private sector — multi-billion dollar firms with the best legal advice — should get immunity for disregarding the clear words of a statute which told them not to do it.
And the man has the nerve to send me email that says he is very concerned about protecting my civil liberties.
Then again, this is the same Bill Nelson of Florida who voted for torture, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.
We won’t forget, Billyboy. Still a lotta housecleanin’ to do!
Bill Nelson, the only Democrat who is willing to stand up for what he believes in, and what is best for the nation. and not vote along party lines.
Maybe if Mr. Disrespectful Froomkin actually knew something about politics and matters of national security, he would understand why Bill Nelson votes the way he does.
I bet Froomkin is too intellectually limited to understand how Lieberman (a former Democrat but now Independent) voted against his party on numerous occasions relating to the Iraq War. Maybe not all politics is about voting according to how the Party wants you to or what will get the most voters to support you, and more voting as to how you truly believe the country will benefit from it. After all, isn’t that the very fundamental ideal that the institution of a democracy is based on? Don’t you think Froomy that that is the reason Lieberman was reelected as an Independent, and his imbecile Democratic Rival Ned Lamont, who tried to pretend that he cared about ending the Iraq War, lost?