"Today we have sent a message to President Bush that we will not tolerate his abuse of power and veil of secrecy"--Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)

"Today we have scored a victory for American civil liberties and sent a message to President Bush that we will not tolerate his abuse of power and veil of secrecy. The President should not be above the rule of law, nor should the telecom companies who supported his quest to spy on American citizens. I want to thank the thousands of Americans throughout the country that stood with me to get this done for our country."
--Sen. Chris Dodd, after his Senate-floor talkathon against telecom immunity, abetted by a handful of stalwart colleagues, induced Majority Leader Harry Reid to yank the FISA extension act and hold it over till January (check out the senator's blog, and Crooks and Liars has video)

Howie was wondering earlier whether Senator Dodd was going to save the republic, and tonight the answer is: YES! It wasn't a filibuster, technically. In fact, only 10 senators voted against cloture. But that left 30 hours of talk time available, and Dodd and his cohorts made it clear that they were prepared to fill that time--and each additional 30-hour bloc that opened up in the course of the debate on amendments to the wretchedly misnamed Protect America Act. (As with most everything in the Age of Bush, the name is the exact opposite of the intent, or at any rate the likely outcome. Endanger America Act would be a far more appropriate name.)

At the risk of sprinkling some cold water on the celebration, it's kind of a minor victory: a mere delay rather than defeat of a point that is ultimately going to be legally insignificant anyway. I mean, even in the event that the final PAA fails to provide the Bush regime-demanded retroactive legal shield for telecom companies that broke the law in complying with the regime's squeeze for data, does anyone really believe that any such company will ever face prosecution? At the hands of the very regime they played footsie with?

Still, a victory is a victory. And I love the spin put on it by the Young Turks' Cenk Uygur:

"It turns out it's not so hard to stand up to them. All it took was one senator, and we stopped them cold in their tracks. Imagine if the Democrats united to fight the Bush administration together.

"Then, they just might be able to beat the most unpopular president of all time."

Now if some Senate Democrats--other than the Faithful 10 who "got it" and voted against cloture today--were to get this message, they might start behaving as if they had some say in Senate proceedings.

And is anyone else thinking, "Dodd for president"?


OH YES, WHO ARE THE SENATE'S "FAITHFUL-TO-DEMOCRACY 10"?

A bunch of the Senate presidential wannabes currently haunting Iowa declared themselves against the cloture motion that prevented a filibuster of the Protect America Act extension, but only Senator Dodd showed up on Capitol Hill. Here's the roster of the faithful senators who made up the losing bloc in the 76-10 vote:

Barbara Boxer of California
Sherrod Brown of Ohio
Maria Cantwell of Washington State
Ben Cardin of Maryland
Chris Dodd of Connecticut
Russ Feingold of Wisconsin
Tom Harkin of Iowa
John Kerry of Massachusetts
Bob Menendez of New Jersey
Ron Wyden of Oregon

Is it necessary to add that all 10 are Democrats?

#