The Bush Administration and Mitch McConnell are demanding retroactive immunity for past violations by telecommunication companies of the law by engaging in warrantless spying of American citizens. In essence, it would codify the notion that these companies can break the law merely because the president tells them to.
Ridiculous, right?
Well, Democrats appear ready to agree.
Granting retroactive immunity to telecom companies for past lawbreaking is so plainly unjustifiable, even dangerous, that it ought to require no real debate. That Congressional Democrats are even considering submitting to this demand, let alone that they are likely to do so, dispels any doubt about what they really are [...]
On a strictly quantitative level, it is true that Republicans have been more supportive than Democrats of these policies -- in the sense that more Democrats cast votes against them -- but Democrats have done nothing meaningful to stop any of it, even when they could. Indeed, paradoxically, Democrats have actively enabled and endorsed this extremism more and more as they have gained more power. As a result, what were the illegal policies of the Bush administration have become lawful as the result of a Congress which does nothing when executive lawbreaking is revealed except enact legislation to legalize the behavior.
Glenn Greenwald has all the gory details and explains why this is an unacceptable outrage.