FISA Semi-victory

Harry Reid just announced on the floor that he intends to table debate on the FISA overhaul legislation until January.

This is an important development and will hopefully allow the opposition to telco amnesty to convince enough Senators that providing blanket immunity to these companies who broke the law really doesn't do much to keep us safe.

UPDATE: Now you can see why Harry Reid does everything he can to avoid actual filibusters, even though we all think it would it would be great to make them do it from time to time. They're a huge pain in the ass, and if you're up against an adjournment deadline and there's other important business pending, they can work even if you have the votes for cloture. Because you eventually have to make a choice between the rest of the agenda, and beating down and riding out a filibuster.

In some very important ways, it's perhaps a very good thing that we learned this with a Democratic filibuster as opposed to a Republican one. [Kagro X]