The telecommunication companies that allegedly violated the civil liberties of millions of Americans while working hand in hand with the Bush administration and Congress, see the writing on the wall with the soon to be announced decision by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The Justice Department motion sought to block the Electronic Frontier Foundation lawsuit against AT&T. It doesn't look so good for those that trespassed on the constitution... so.
The telecomindustry has mounted a campaign to do what they do best-- control Congress. It should be easy in an election year but the stakes are so high, billions in class-action suits, that they have mounted an impressive campaign led by Verizon general counsel William Barr, who served as attorney general under 41, and AT&T senior executive vice president James Cicconi, who was the elder Bush's deputy chief of staff.
But wait! We have to make sure there is a really good show of support from both sides of the isle for corporations that worked with our government to violate our civil liberties. Getting a substantial number of Democrats to go along will cost the Telecoms a pretty penny.
So, with billions at stake, the alleged wrong so egregious, and needing bi-partisan support, they brought in more muscle to include Republican lobbyists Charlie Black and Wayne Berman (who represent AT&T and Verizon), former GOP senator Dan Coats (a lawyer at King & Spaulding who is representing Sprint), former Democratic Party strategist Tom Donilon (who represents Verizon), former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick (whose law firm also represents Verizon) and Brad Berenson, a former assistant White House counsel under President George W. Bush who now represents AT&T.
You can see who is going to win this battle and it ain't us. But can you expect Democrats to mount a defense of corporate/government assault on our constitution? Not really... at a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing a Michigan Democrat, Wainstein, said that giving telecoms companies retroactive liability was a matter of "general fairness." Besides, this is a golden opportunity to fill the campaign chests. Democrats will posture, hold hearings, make statements to the press until the Telecoms come up with the right numbers.Then we will fold up the tent and go home friends. Ain't that the way it works?
The American people were never going to have their day in court. We will not be allowed to know the extent of this travesty. The judicial system will force the curtain of corporate control of our government to be drawn back a bit but justice will not prevail. The real power-brokers would not hear of it.