Obama now says he will filibuster a bill he supports

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The FISA flip-flop just keeps getting better and better for Barack Obama. After reversing himself and signaling his support for the FISA compromise that passed the House — which included a provision for court-supervised immunity for telecoms — Obama’s base went ballistic. Obama did a half-flop backwards, promising to try to strip immunity from the bill in the Senate: (Obama makes John Kerry look like a straight shooter!)

June 21, 2008, 12:20 PM

Obama: I'll Fight To Strip Telecom Immunity From FISA

Posted by David S Morgan| 305

(CBS/AP) - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., issued a statement in support of the House's update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but said he would try to strip a provision granting immunity to telecommunication companies when the bill comes to a vote in the Senate next week.

The House approved a compromise bill Friday that would set new electronic surveillance rules that would also shield telecoms from lawsuits arising from their participation in the government's warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and computer lines in the United States.

The government eavesdropped on American phone and computer lines for almost six years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks without permission from the FISA Court, the special panel established for that purpose under the original 1978 law.

Some 40 lawsuits have been filed against the telecommunications companies by groups and individuals who say the Bush administration illegally monitored their phone calls or e-mails.

Obama said there is "little doubt" that the Bush Administration, with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies, "has abused [its] authority and undermined the Constitution by intercepting the communications of innocent Americans without their knowledge or the required court orders."

"Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.

"[The bill] does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses."

The House approved the legislation 293-129.

The White House had threatened to veto any surveillance bill that did not also shield the companies.

Critics say granting immunity to telecoms would scrap the pending lawsuits and prevent any public airing of details about the government's surveillance activities.

Last February, when an earlier version of the FISA bill came to a vote, Obama voted for an amendment to strip the telecom immunity provision from the bill. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted in favor of keeping immunity for the telecoms.

Speaking in an interview to be aired on Bloomberg television this weekend, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that he may schedule a separate vote on stripping immunity from the bill, although he expressed pessimism about its success.

"Probably we can't take that out of the bill, but I'm going to try," Reid told "Political Capital with Al Hunt."

CBS NEWS

Obama’s base wants another flip-flop from Obama. MoveOn has sent out a letter to its members asking them to press Obama to fulfill a campaign pledge not just to oppose FISA reform and telecom immunity, but to filibuster any such bill that comes before the Senate. The pledge came in October 2007, when Dodd had made a mini-run at Obama’s hard-Left constituency with his activism against FISA reform:

It’s official: Obama will back a filibuster of any Senate FISA legislation containing telecom immunity, his campaign has just told Election Central. The Obama campaign has just sent over the following statement from spokesman Bill Burton:

“To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”

So let’s recap Obama’s positions on this issue:

1. He opposed the FISA reform bill when it included non-supervised immunity for the telecoms.

2. He pledged to filibuster any bill that contained retroactive immunity.

3. When the bill passed the Senate in February with non-supervised immunity, he was glad to stand with Russ Feingold, Chris Dodd, and the “grassroots movement of Americans” opposed to it.

4. After spending the next three months avoiding the subject, he declares support for the House compromise bill that contains court-supervised retroactive immunity.

5. But then he says he wants to strip out the immunity in the bill he supports, which would force everyone to start over again from scratch.

6. And he also stops far short of the filibuster pledge he made when he needed to keep Dodd from stealing his support last fall.

So which is it? Does Obama support this FISA reform bill or not? Will he try filibustering a bill that won a large majority in the House and which is even more of a compromise than the bill that won 68 votes in the Senate in February? Will Obama try to do yet another flip-flop and still convince people that he has any principles at all?

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Check out the first second hell it's getting hard to keep up with this guys monthly weekly daily flip flops.

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Could one of you achmed worshipers please explain the position of your messiah on this issue? I'm not sure if he's for, against, or just waiting for the next popular poll to tell him his position.