Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Richardson
came out with a statement yesterday against telecom immunity and it’s crystal
clear:

"… .. Incredibly, the Senate stands on the verge of abetting another Presidential outrage by considering a bill that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies that admitted to assisting the government in spying on American citizens by disclosing personal information. This bill must not pass. … .."

That means Chris Dodd has Feingold, Biden and Obama, along with Richardson
standing behind him.

We still haven’t heard a clarification from Hillary Clinton after her original
statement.

Senator Hillary Clinton:
Clinton Presidential: 703-469-2008 Senate: (202) 224-4451
Presidential campaign
contact page
Senate office contact page

We’ve also got to work on the Senate Judiciary committee. Dodd has the numbers
and names, as well as where we stand.

Then there’s Senator Rockefeller who is actually defending the telecoms. Jane
Hamsher reveals an interesting article and graphic to go along with Jay’s
telecom tale.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller finds himself in a dilemma: He’s supporting judicial immunity for telecommunications firms that cooperated in the Bush administration’s efforts to eavesdrop on Americans without obtaining warrants, and he’s taking national criticism for accepting contributions from the firms’ top brass. … .. “The telephone companies were asked to do something,” she said. “They were told it was legal and they complied.” … .. But that doesn’t explain the sudden interest in getting Rockefeller re-elected in 2008 that executives from the nation’s two largest telecommunications firms — Verizon and AT&T — have suddenly shown. Since March, they have contributed more than $42,000 to his re-election effort. … Jay’s camp defends telecom firms – Donations not related to immunity proposal, spokeswoman says

Senator Rockefeller is loaded, so the money isn’t necessarily where I’m focused.
But he’s not been shown to be the strongest in standing up to power. Remember
the Senate Intelligence
nightmare where he got rolled by Roberts of Kansas, and we couldn’t get
phase two done? The bold section above seems positively lame. Like the telecoms
don’t have lawyers who can tell them it’s against the law to illegally spy on
U.S. citizens without a warrant? What’s Rockefeller doing anyway? Who is this
guy, Ward Clever? We’ve got so many challenges on this it’s hard to know where
to begin, but it’s obvious Senator Jay Rockefeller is not part of the solution
at this point. In his committee, telecom immunity passed by 13-2. It’s big business
against you and me, folks, and we’re losing.

And it’s not like this is important or anything. It’s only the Constitution. Somebody needs to tell Jay Rockefeller that the telecom companies have a resposibility to us, and just because the people in charge dont have the conscience, the ethics or the courage to understand that the only thing they need in their hands to say no to a president is the Constitution of the United States doesn’t mean we the people have to put up with it. What they did is illegal. Their lawyers knew it. They just thought they could get away with it and benefit at the same time. That’s what happened, too, right up until we found out they helped the Bush administration spy on Americans outside the law.