Dems sat on FISA intelligence problem for months

Jed Babbin:

If Usama bin Laden has a sense of humor – or maybe if his #2 guy, Ayman al-Zawahiri does -- the two must be laughing as hard as you or I do when we see a rerun of “Blazing Saddles.” The spectacle of the US Congress refusing to deal with the crisis in intelligence gathering necessitating amendment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act must tickle their funny bones like their favorite hostage-beheading video.

Since April, the Democrats who control the US Senate have been sitting around like Mel Brooks’ oversexed and under-competent Governor LePetomaine, demanding harrumps from each other and worrying how they’re going to save their phoney baloney jobs next year. (Harry LePetomaine Reid was out yesterday blaming President Bush for the Minneapolis bridge collapse.) Meanwhile, Bin Laden must be enjoying the spectacle of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body failing to fix the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was apparently broken by a secret court decision this spring.

We know now that since April, American intelligence gatherers have missed some or all of the e-mails and telephone calls going overseas to suspect terrorists or coming into the US from them because of a classified decision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.

Congress is scheduled to go out on its August recess tonight, and unless Democrats Russell Feingold (D-WI), Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) suffer a moment of lucidity, the boys and girls will go off on their holiday without fixing FISA.

And our intelligence agencies, unwilling to break the law, will forfeit another month of partial or total deafness to the communications between terrorists here and their commanders overseas. To understand just how insane this is, one of the Dems’ biggest hang-ups is the fact that Attorney General Gonzales is being given an oversight role. To the Dems, it’s worth missing another months’ electronic intelligence if they can put a sharp stick in ol’ Alberto’s eye.

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Yesterday, I was convinced that the Dems, even as insane and irresponsible group as these, wouldn’t go out on their August recess without at least a patchwork change to FISA to tide the intel guys over. But that may not be true. Though bargaining goes on, the last reliable report on the talks between Senate Dems and Republicans said that another new version of the legislation -- this being the third or fourth of the week -- was proposed this afternoon by Carl Levin and rejected out of hand by Director of National Intelligence Adm. Mike McConnell.

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Meanwhile the NY Times is saying the administration is trying to steamroll congress at the last minute on this problem. It appears that the Democrats are either uncaring or they are playing a passive aggressive game of chicken with the administration. Either way, the Democrats are being irresponsible with our national security.