Congressional Quarterly reports (sub. req.):
[N]ow that the Republicans have worked out a deal on detainees, Democrats are not planning any organized effort to filibuster the deal in the Senate, even though they may not agree with some of the specifics in the legislation.With just a few days left before the election recess, Democratic aides say they are not going to give Republicans an opportunity to paint them into a corner.
“We’re going to do what we can to limit the amount of daylight between us and them on national security issues in order to neutralize this as a political issue,” a senior Democratic aide said.
… Because it’s worked so many times before?
The state of play is chaotic on both the legislation legalizing the NSA warrantless wiretapping, as well as that which would legalize programs to detain, interrogate and prosecute terror suspects, also known as the torture “compromise.”
The Senate has a tentative vote scheduled on a standalone “compromise” bill today, although the same language is in a bill which is combined with the language of the White House NSA bill.
To make matters more complicated, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) offered the “compromise” language as an amendment to an anti-immigration measure, that would build a giant fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, CQ reports. No word on what happened to that effort.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has said he would offer an amendment to the detainee bill that would allow suspects the right to appeal their detention, but said he wouldn’t hold up the bill to do so.
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