Barack Obama was one of 29 U.S. Senators who opposed cloture on a key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) vote today. The specific issue: whether to extend immunity to telecommunications companies that assisted the government in terrorist surveillance. John McCain voted in favor of cloture and for immunity along with all other Republicans (Lindsey Graham was absent), the increasingly sensible Dianne Feinstein (she voted to confirm Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Fifth Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick despite the protestations of the civil rights lobby), and a number of Red (e.g. Bayh, Johnson, McCaskill, Webb) and Blue (e.g. Mikulski, Casey) state Democrats. But not Obama. Doesn’t this say something about his noncentrist views on national security? To whom was he “reaching out” on this vote and what new type of politics was he practicing? Or was he voting with the most extreme elements of his party? And what precisely is the rationale for denying immunity to companies which in good faith aided in national security endeavors? This might be a fruitful line of inquiry for the soon to be Republican nominee. (Oh, and Hillary Clinton? She did not vote.)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 5:02 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.