What FISA capitulations are Democrats planning next?

The imminent FISA debate implicates every critical issue of constitutional protections, checks and balances and the rule of law.

Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com

An article in this morning's NYT reports what many have long been expecting -- that Congressional Democrats are ready to capitulate to the White House again on warrantless eavesdropping just as they did in August, only this time by making their capitulation permanent:

Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency.

Administration officials say they are confident they will win approval of the broadened authority that they secured temporarily in August as Congress rushed toward recess. Some Democratic officials concede that they may not come up with enough votes to stop approval.

This article may very well turn out to be accurate. Personally, I've been arguing since the disgraceful August FISA gift to the Bush White House that the chances were far greater that Democrats, before the six-month sunset provision elapsed, would actually pass an even worse FISA bill -- one that gave the President all the warrantless surveillance powers they gave him before plus what he wants most: retroactive amnesty for lawbreaking -- rather than adhering to their promise to "fix" what they did. So it is quite possible that Congressional Democrats will do here what they have been doing all year long, ever since they were pointlessly given control of Congress -- namely, meekly (and/or eagerly) give George Bush everything he demands.

(Continued here.)