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Congress seems to be putting out another false narrative about protecting us from the "tearrists" just like they've been doing since 2001, and even prior to then; and this time it has to do with FISA which came about as a result of the Church Committee's findings.

The House pulled their con last Summer with Nancy Pelosi (operator) and Steny Hoyer (operator) flipping the cards when they could have used the Rules of the House to make a Motion the Recommit (which they did not do) to derail the FISA bill which was approved under threats by the pResident (operator), and now it's Harry Reid's (operator) turn.

[While this plays out, watch for the cheating shill, the capper, and the booster ... We're the marks!]

How are they going to do it?

Rule 14 of the Standing Rules of the Senate

Here are the scenarios as Christy @ FDL understood them as of last Friday morning after speaking with several Congressional aides

1. The Judiciary bill replaces the Intel bill entirely and is voted on as the FISA bill on the floor of the Senate. Since the Judiciary got the bill from Intel, and it was not given an individual number when they received it, there is an argument that the Judiciary bill supercedes/replaces the Intel bill entirely. If this is what happens, expect an enormous wailing and gnashing of GOP-ness, and a grudging behind-the-scenes respect for a tactical smackdown from the Dems. (FWIW, I am told that Reid’s office may be leaning this way — and that is good news, if true.)

2. The Judiciary bill is an amendment to the Intel bill, and will have to be voted as such on the Senate floor — if voted through, it could replace the entire Intel version. This would be a huge floor fight.

3. There are two bills — the Intel version and the Judiciary version. As Majority Leader, Harry Reid can choose between them under Rule 14, and offer whichever one is chosen to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

4. There is a third bill in play: the House passed the amended RESTORE Act yesterday evening, and it could also be pulled in as the bill on which votes will be cast on the floor of the Senate under the Rule 14 prerogative for Harry Reid.

5. Under Rule 14, I am told that there is also an additional option: Harry Reid could take parts of all the bills and craft his own substitute. I think this is politically unlikely, given the make-up of the Democratic caucus and the huge disparities between folks like Pat Leahy and Russ Feingold on the side of the rule of law and Joe Lieberman on the side of…whatever Dick Cheney wants him to side with in the moment. And because the Senate is so tightly divided, and the GOP caucus not too likely to split off many votes, this is the most unlikely of all the scenarios, in my opinion.

So, best guess is, Harry (the operator) will stand before the teevee cameras and whine and moan about having to be able to spy on the tearrists with a marginally watered down version of the Intelligence Committee's bill (with the telecom immunity), and that this is the best bill that can be passed in Congress and signed by pResnident Short-Attention-Span. He'll make sure that the SJC's bill gets to the floor, which will be voted down, because "we don't have the votes" and he won't even look twice at the House bill. He'll make sure the SIC's bill passes and then make sure he has allies in the conference committee who'll see to it that what he wants is in there.

Even the SJC's bill and the House bill have mortal flaws, they're the not-so-bad bills they sometimes pass; but still, that's a false narrative.

UPDATE: I kind of thought the House bill (HR 3773) was a decent bill, but I didn't have all the facts because it's not so easy to read every word of every bill.

Christy has an update on HR 3773 that shows that Harry Reid does have a choice and it's clear that he can choose option 4 above and have a decent bill to vote on.

UPDATE II: On second thought, it's not exactly clear that this bill goes far enough.

The more I think about it, I think that there is some kind of bait and switch going on and I'm not entirely convinced that they need to pass a bill at all because they are already allowed to spy on suspected "tearrists" and their suspected sympathizers because they've always been able to get retroactive warrants, i.e. the existing law allows for exigent circumstances (Any lawyers lurking? If I'm wrong let me know in the comments). If he were at all serious about doing his job he would throw out all the bills and let the thing die because what the Whitehouse wants is nothing but a data mining operation to spy on political opponents

And somewhere along the line Mitch McConnell's going to be involved -- not sure if he's going to be the booster or the cheating shill

You wanna tell Harry that you won't be taken?

Harry Reid's contact info

Washington, DC
528 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327

Reno
Bruce R. Thompson
Courthouse & Federal Bldg
400 S. Virginia St, Suite 902
Reno, NV 89501
Phone: 775-686-5750
Fax: 775-686-5757