History!

yo

Hooray!

Dodd!

WOO HOO!!!

THANK YOU SENATOR DODD!!!

Dodd takes a victory lap.

Well deserved.

Leadership.

Chris Dodd, thank you very much.

Bravo, sir!

Dodd you are the man!!! Goooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaallllllllllll!

A Real Leader, what do you know!

When danger reared it’s ugly head, Harry turned and bravely fled.

Dodd-mania trumps Joe-mentum every time.

Thanks you Chris Dodd!

Great job firepups! We win this round.

Huzzah! I believe in God the Constitution and Senator Dodd!

Real leadership from a Democrat, at last!

Sit on it, Harry.

Oh wait, I guess he just volunteered to do just that, huh?

THANK YOU SENATOR DODD!

Great Job Senator Dodd and thanks to FDL and the great discussion of all of the firepups!
Where do we go from hear. Any good analysis yet?

Victory!!! Finally, chalk one up for the white hats… 8-)

Thank you Senator Dodd! Thank you Senators Feingold and Kennedy, too!

Thank you Senator Dodd…you are a true patriot and HERO!!

Today I am proud once again to be an American. Thank you Senator Dodd.
Thank you FDL. I have hope restored.

Remember how giddy we all were when the Libby verdict came in?

Reid demonstrates he’s weak.

Dodd demonstrates how a strong Dem senator can force Reid to cave.

Very revealing, IMO.

I knew we could win!!! Thank you to all the Senators, and all the American citizens, who supported this effort today.

Thank you, especially, Senator Chris Dodd. You have my gratitude and my respect.

Wonderful news! Sent email of congrats to Senator Dodd.

Thanks to FDL for a great petition mechanism and diary offering moral support to Sen. Dodd and suggestions for ‘talking points’ during his filibuster.

I don’t have much money left after holiday shopping, but I just dropped what I could with Chris Dodd at his website. Dodd did what others would not.

Thanks Sen, Dodd!

Wow!! I guessing Reid heard a lot from his own folks in Nevada today. I doubt there are a whole lot of people in Las Vegas that appreciate being spied upon…

Excellent news, though. Feels like it was worthwhile making calls this time.

GO FDL! GO JANE!

Real leadership from a Democrat, at last!

Which brings the running total up to, wait a minute, counting…

One.

It’s a start.

Reminds me of one of my favorite Blues tunes: “If I can’t sell it, I’m gonna sit on it”.

A wonderful day for the Constitution.

Let’s hear it for Senator Dodd!

The Dodd Abides!

This is very, very good. And it will certainly serve Dodd well in his campaigning.

Nevertheless, I just can’t shake the feeling that there is more to this than Reid backing down. What is really going on?

Thank you Senators Dodd and Feingold and their like-minded colleagues.
Thank you Jane! And Christy! And…..

Firepups are foxhole-worthy.

Lieberman? You putz. Enjoy Tweety fawning over you. Your 15 minutes are up.

Despite being Canadian, I signed the online petition and would like to congratulate all those that worked to get this issue, this far and hopefully to the rightful results. Kudos Mr. Dodd.

Hats off to Senator Dodd. Hillary, Obama? This is what real leadership looks like in case you were wondering. It doesn’t happen in Iowa. It happens on the floor of the Senate. You might learn something from this. Doubt that you will though.

This is one of those times where it took me a moment to wonder if I had heard what I thought I heard. Apparently Dodd and we have won this round. Reid keyed in on immunity but there are still important questions about basket warrants, reverse targeting, and minimization.

Faced with determined opposition, Reid didn’t have a choice. There are other matters that have to pass the Senate before January, and determined obstruction (which Dodd just exerted) would eat up all that time. Reid was calling Dodd’s bluff, only to find it wasn’t a bluff. During that process, a few Senators had a chance to get their opinions on the record. I’m reluctant to accord their speeches the label of “argument,” because the logic in them just doesn’t reach that level. “Opinions” seems a better fit.

Let’s hear it for Senator Dodd!

Hurray Senator Dodd! The fight has begun.

May be a great achievement — may be just a way to can this thing up out of the MSM limelight. Only time will tell. There will not be a lot of time for debate when they bring it back up in January, and in the meantime lots of severe armtwisting can be applied in private and at length.

So: Cautious optimism here.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Sen. Reid does give a rat’s ass what we think here at fdl and other such places. Then again, maybe he doesn’t. But I’m EXTREMELY pleased that Dodd’s strategy worked.

Chris,

You are earning my vote. So far, you are the only candidate who has put her/his ideology into action. Thanks for giving us more than a sound-byte, as well as something to believe in!!!

:)

Do we still get to call Senator Reid a wanker? C’mon, I really wanna!

There was other good news today, too. Not all judges drink the kool-aid:

The White House must release its visitor logs and cannot hide behind a shield of privilege, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Okay, I admit it. I’m a pessimist. Either that or I’ve been disappointed so many times that I dare not hope. But this is good. On my way to donate $25 to Senator Dodd.

Sen. Dodd, you rule. Every single Democratic presidential candidate should be forced to explain where the heck they were today and why whatever they were doing was more important than defending the Constitution.

The audacity of your colleagues standing on the Senate floor and whining about the potential loss of AT&T’s reputation is staggering.

Thanks for being a real hero and don’t spend my contribution to your campaign all in one place!

LOL!

Omigawd - you guys did it! Hurray and Huzzah! I signed the petition, but didn’t have the opportunity to do phone calls, etc. Thanks to Jane, Christy and all Firepups who made this happen!!! I am so excited for this result - I guess Harry heard us all! And dear dear Dodd - Oh my! What a patriot!
Love to all!

Jane! thank you too for leading us!
You inspired me last night to send 100 emails, and 15 calls today!

now to donate to Sen.Dodd

There will not be a lot of time for debate when they bring it back up in January,…

Hey - they’ve got all month, and part of February…

moeman,

thanks for your care. this U.S. citizen thanks you.

I understand all the face saving - but I really want the issue dealt with. This waiting is driving me nuts. I feel like I can count on Dodd though.

Friggin A!

Dodd!

-GSD

YES! YES! that is how it is done

Great News!

Now to build on the momentum for this vital and just cause.

Thank You Sen. Dodd

What made Harry Milquetoast fix the bad bill after he said he couldn’t do nuthin’? It was Chris Dodd and We the People - raising hell on the internet, faxes, mail and phones. Awesome. All the good people who know about it hate telco immunity b/c its so rotten it stinks.

Bravo Senator Dodd!

Now that is what I call leadership!

Let’s make sure Dodd knows we are grateful … I sent a donation to his campaign which seemed the best way to make my support of his effort concrete.

I feel like I’ve been shot in the head 500 times but had one of the bullets sort of extracted.

Oh. Technically, Reid didn’t “pull the bill.” The bill was never formally pending. What was withdrawn was a motion to take up the bill.

In the long run, I think this just delays the inevitable. There are easily 60 Senators who will sign on to S.2248, unamended, amnesty and all.

Cool, I just got an automated primary poll call for Georgia and was able to say I’d vote for Dodd!

I can’t wait to hear what KO has to say about this. Ten more minutes and we will know.

Thank you Senator Dodd. Thank you FDL. The phone calls and faxes that just may have made a difference. My faith in the possibility of justice and the American way has been restored. Bravo Bravo. Finally a win and someone to be proud of.

In the last thread @ 159 I wrote,

One of the little sidebars to this whole controversy today is that we’re seeing a little contest between Harry Reid, the current Majority Leader, and Chris Dodd, a possible future Majority Leader, on who can master the intricacies of Senate rules and muster the votes best. Dodd lacks the powers of the ML, but is not without allies. He is working the floor as well as making speeches. Forcing a rollcall gives him an opportunity to work the floor a bit.

My guess is that Dodd may be the better chessmaster, and is practicing his chops. CSPAN is giving him some free airtime in Iowa. So there are some interesting sideshows going on here.

Well, score the first round for Sen. Dodd!

From the comments I’ve read today, Dodd sounds comfortable at the helm, working the floor. Reid doesn’t really seem in his element as Majority Leader.

w00t for Sen. Dodd!

Bob in HI

Thanks to all of us too, Reid said he’d received thousands of letters and the people really know what is going on.

New acronym for the night - OMFD!

Do we still get to call Senator Reid a wanker? C’mon, I really wanna!

Please do.

My messages to Senators Reid and Mikulski:
:::::::::::
I used to work for my local telco and I can assure you they knew did a risk/reward calculation in deciding to participate in warrantless wiretapping. Why on earth should they be shielded from the consequences of their decision? They were anticipating a “permanent Republican majority” don’t you recall.
:::::::::::
As a native Balitmoron who once lived in the east Baltimore neighborhood that produced Babs, I gotta say her support for telco immunity and her earlier support for General Hayden have been making me wonder if she’s really the liberal Democrat she’s portrayed as being.

What do you think is going on at the White House right now?

Merry Christmas, Mr. Bush!!

That lump we left in your stocking - it isn’t coal…

I agree with Siun. Dodd certainly deserves more than Ron Paul. If he gets lots of money for showing this kinda determination, it will be well noted. Come on, pups! Ante up.

Thanks for update, Jane! Well, I’ve already decided Dodd has my primary vote pretty much for certain. His words and actions really do need to be rewarded, and I’m so very tired of holding my nose and voting for someone who doesn’t even remotely deserve it. For that reason, the only electoral reform that would make me happier than the National Popular Vote would be the use of ranked choice voting in primaries. Why should anyone ever have to make a choice between who deserves one’s vote and who’s “doing well enough in the polls” to be considered “electable?”

They are trying to explain to Dana what a telecom is.

Wow. Just. Wow.

Power to the People!

yup off to ante up.

Holy Crap! This will give us precious time to consolidate our opposition further while giving Reid precious time to pray that we forget all about this and go away.

Speaking of enemies who lie low and bide their time following a setback, shouldn’t we all be immediately redirecting our energies to figuring out how to stop Kevin Martin’s media consolidation efforts at the FCC? I mean, now that we’ve got a (momentary, only momentary) breather regarding FISA?

Strategizing. DNI McConnell is being given marching orders, I would think… not that he’d particularly need telling, specializing as he has in telco/USG relations WRT surveillance.

Here’s the way to contribute to Dodd.

Dodd still up…what is happening

Can we beat up Lieberman now? Pretty please!

it may very well end up that the effort fails (indeed, while i would be disappointed, i would not be surprised) - but dodd et al. are not going to make it easy, they have said that they will fight every step of the way. if they do that and if there is enough help, they may be able to drag this out until senators want to go home for the christmas break. in other words dodd (with help from feingold and kennedy and wyden and others) can make the people who support this sucky law have to pay a price for it. the question then becomes - are tehy willing to pay the price?

but this all depends on dodd not giving up and on him getting enough help (hence our efforts to lobby our senators and ask for their assistance).

comment is from previous thread

reid et al were not willing to pay the price. doesn’t mean that he won’t be after the recess, but now we have some time to expand and enhance our lobbying efforts.

You know if Dodd hadn’t done this, with pretty much one hundred percent certainty we’d have telecom immunity, right. now.

A giant w00t w00t for Senator Dodd! Great job.

I kicked in a nice little monetary thank you right after his 1st speech. Go Dodd!

Never before has a President and Vice President deserved to be impeached more than these.
Yet our Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is working behind the scenes with House Democrats, not to build a consensus for impeachment, but to do just the opposite. To keep others from succeeding in their effort to hold this president accountable by means of impeachment.
With the FISA bill looming in the Senate, we have to show the leaders of the House and Senate that this is still our country. Please read the petition to replace Pelosi with a Democratic Representative who will bring impeachment proceedings to the floor.

http://www.petitiononline.com/.....ition.html

The Dodd Abides!

LOL, loved that movie!

Does anyone know if any of the current contenders bothered to show up on the floor today? Paging Sen. Clinton, paging Sen. Obama….

What “did in” the bill, as much as anything, was the time remaining between now and the end of the first session of the 100th Congress. Reid has a good half-dozen other items that have to be done before January, and FISA can wait, with a February deadline for completion.

Of course, without determined opposition, this might well have passed without amendment. See passage of the PAA last August for an example of TYPICAL Senate action under a time crunch. What happened today was an aberration.

Congrats to the blogosphere! It was instrumental in bringing out this short term victory. The WH will now start a campaign to impugn the terrorist-loving liberals. To our benefit, Hatch et. al. detailed all of their easily-rebutted arguments. Blogosphere needs to get out in front and OWN THE ARGUMENT. We need to pressure the MSM to run our rational arguments, while dismissing the fear-mongering of the evil Orrin Hatches of the world.

Reid said he’d received thousands of letters and the people really know what is going on.

That is actually much more heartening to me than the outcome of this particular parliamentary maneuver.

Really important, he introduced a bill to honor the Valdosta State Blazers for winning the D II football championship. Can the Whitewater Warhawks be far behind?

Reid, of course, avoided the ignominy of having Dodd filibuster him and speak the thousands of messages sent in by ordinary Americans on the floor of the Senate.

He avoided having his fellow Senators actually read the competingt bills, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as if for the first time. He saved his ass as well as deferred a vote on his perverse legislation. He avoided giving the House a bill to chew over or spit out.

Question is, what deal will he try to make between now and the first of the year?

NO KO!

They are trying to explain to Dana what a telecom is.

Well, Dana, it’s like an intercom only bigger.

It’s like the cameras at the press briefings except they do it to your phone.

Those voices that you hear in your head? They can hear them too.

donated half a century

And did you hear Hatch crying about Move-on and the blogs?

Senate’s adjourned till tomorrow!

Something just happened with S.2248 … I have to replay the recording to see exactly what it was.

In the long run, I think this just delays the inevitable. There are easily 60 Senators who will sign on to S.2248, unamended, amnesty and all

there have always been 60 senators to vote for amnesty. the question is: are there 60 senators who care so much about amnesty that they are willing to give up more than a week to debate it?

The next step is for some brave soul to speak on the floor of the House or Senate and “spill the beans” on some of these self serving “State Secrets”. And then dare the fascists to prosecute them.

Can we beat up Lieberman now? Pretty please!

Please do.

Done for the day! where do we pickup tommorow?
Oh No No Keith has the day off. How anti climatic, I was hoping for some great comments from him.

Oh sure, I put The Peanut to bed and read her a story, come downstairs expecting to make myself some popcorn for a long night of debate watching…and, whammo!

Good on Sen. Dodd. And Jane, you are so right: without Dodd pushing this, and without Feingold and Kennedy and a number of others standing with him and also pushing a LOT behind the scenes, we’d have telecom immunity right now. Those who did the work deserve a lot of credit.

Those who didn’t bother to show up when it counted? Not so much…

It’s an aberration I’ll take cboldt. I know this has only bought us time, but we have failed at that repeatedly. I’ll take my victories where I can get them and this is a damn good start. For the first time, THE FIRST TIME, a Democrat in Congress has stood up to BushCo and stood on principle. We are in a much better spot today than we were yesterday, so I’ll take it.

And in January, we’ll be going not for the game, but the set. And after that, the match…

Thanks not only to Dodd, Kennedy and Feingold, but also to Senator Boxer, who was the first No vote on Cloture and the first speaker in opposition, and all Senators who spoke today and brought about this victory.

You know if Dodd hadn’t done this, with pretty much one hundred percent certainty we’d have telecom immunity, right. now.

yes i do.

i think this is first time all year i’ve been glad about all the hours i spent on moveon’s phone banking system last year.

What on earth has been the matter with FDL today? Poor Emptywheel has been unusable, and eponymous FDL hasn’t been much better. Did anything ever come of the DOS theory?

This is one of those times where it took me a moment to wonder if I had heard what I thought I heard.

I must have been a sight just now, staring dumbly at my screen for close to a minute. At least it’s a chance to breathe a little while watching for the next big wave on the horizon.

Cowabunga!

Reid is, perhaps, also assuming that the blogosphere will lose energy and be distracted and come New Year, he’ll be able to get his legislation through. He may have it exactly wrong.

As with the Thanksgiving break, Reid should not allow a full “recess”. Bush never really gives in on his political appointments; he just waits for a convenient time.

Senators I need to send a thank you note:

Dodd

Feingold

Kennedy

Who else?

That was just the clerk reporting the pending measure. No action taken.

It’s a malfunction at the junction.

And Jane, you are so right: without Dodd pushing this, and without Feingold and Kennedy and a number of others standing with him and also pushing a LOT behind the scenes, we’d have telecom immunity right now. Those who did the work deserve a lot of credit.

Very true. It would be August all over again.

holy CRAP

I am starting to like dodd as mcuh as I like feingold

dodd/feingold

much better then clinton/obama

very well done, Senator Dodd!

OT if Countdown can be off topic around here.

I love it! Countdown just took note that while Biden, Clinton and Obama all vowed to support Dodd’s filibuster, that they are all still in Iowa! On the national news!

On another note, Alison Stewart has changed her look; she straightened her hair. I like it! She’s a very pretty young woman!

He’s not there!! Ahhhhhhhhhhgggg!!!

My gratitude to Senator Dodd has been expressed with a small contribution, and my support in the primaries.

But we can’t just let it go now. We’ll have to be ready with more pressure come January, to keep this immunity deal out of the FISA reauthorization bill then, too.

I do like the idea of a GIANT web-based, multi-site Chris Dodd for President fundraiser. I already sent him a little, but If we get something BIG going, I’ll send him more than a little bit more! It’d be nice to break Ron Paul’s record. It would sure send a message to Sens. Clinton and Obama, not to mention Sen. Reid.

Add Boxer and Wyden to that list.

This is only a minor victory in a war the progressives and freedom lovers will lose this congress. If these SOBs including W, and the telcoms who ultimately provide the wires for the taps get away with this, score another one for Big Brother.

We need some serious do overs in the next congress, if there is a next one.

Wow. I called Senator Dodd’s office today to thank him profusely. This is the way it is done.

Well done, Senator. This is what we need for our next President. Senator, you just got my vote.

Exactly..all it take is one Senator to say no to the UCs and it would take weeks to get to the end.