FISA Fight: House passes 15 day extension

Maybe they just wanted to make the Senate see how if feels to have a piece of controversial legislation dumped on them right before the other body takes off, just like last August with the last FISA bill. But here's some fun news, the House just passed by voice vote a 15 day extension of the PAA. [Update: I left out the key part--the House will soon go on recess for the rest of the week. So they are dropping this on the Senate--the Senate can't force through the bad Intel version of the bill in the next two days and then make the House pass it under the threat of the expiration of the law, which happens Feb. 2.]

Now the PAA isn't necessarily a good thing to be extending, but politically, this was the best we could hope for in the short term from the House. This gives the Senate something to focus on--an extension of the existing law. It also potentially puts the Republicans in a difficult position given the imminent expiration of the law. If they continue to obstruct allowing any amendments to the current base bill, they will be responsible for letting the law expire. Their president has been telling them that all hell will break loose and the terrorists will win if they let it expire. Being the ones responsible would put them in a slightly uncomfortable position, wouldn't it.

House Republicans might actually be in conflict with their Senate colleagues, since they actually helped push this extension, and they seem convinced that Bush would not veto this extension if they passed it. We'll see if the Senate is listening.

In the meantime, while the PAA is a crappy bill, this extension would give us more time to keep the pressure going on Rockefeller and crew to be actual Democrats and fight for a FISA bill that actually protects the rights of Americans.