Barack Obama threw in an important qualifier on Friday when he endorsed the compromise on electronic surveillance. He says he'd like to knock out the part about shielding the telecommunications companies from lawsuits over their participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program.
As a practical matter, though, the pledge is essentially meaningless. Obama would only get his chance if a) Senate Democrats get an agreement with Republicans to allow a vote on stripping out the immunity language, and b) if it takes place at a time when Obama can fly back from the campaign trail to vote on it.
At this moment, neither one is a certainty. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to set up a vote on getting rid of the immunity, but doesn't have an agreement yet. And if he gets one, it will be because of c): the vote won't even come close to succeeding.
The last time the Senate tried to strip immunity out of the legislation - with an amendment by one of Obama's former presidential rivals, Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut - it got a grand total of 31 votes. Obama was one of them, but there's no sign that he'd have more company this time around, as CQ's Tim Starks reports this morning.
Not surprisingly, liberal groups are furious that Obama would even consider supporting a compromise that would allow warrantless surveillance of suspected terrorists to continue. MoveOn.org, the liberal group that strongly supported Obama in his primary fight against Hillary Rodham Clinton, is telling its members to flood Obama's campaign with phone calls urging him to block the compromise completely.
But that's not going to happen, and it's because Obama, eyeing the national security responsibilities he just might have next year, has decided the ability to monitor overseas suspect is one executive power he needs to have.
At a press conference in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday, Obama said he could live with the compromise because it says the warrantless surveillance program has to comply with the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, unlike the version the Bush administration launched after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I think what's clear is, is that the way the program operated broke the law that was existing at the time," Obama said. "On the other hand, what I've also seen and learned is the degree to which the underlying program itself is, in fact, necessary to help prevent terrorist attacks."
By placing the program squarely within the 1978 law and putting it under the scrutiny of a special court, Obama said, the compromise "provides the oversight that I sought."
Many of his supporters won't be happy with those restrictions, of course. But it looks like that's all they're going to get.
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