Well, we know what the administration thinks about the Dems' surveillance bill. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, as you'd expect, has a different take.

Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney with EFF, told me that the group is "very glad that the House leadership has taken a courageous stand against the administration's demands for telecom amnesty." Bankston is one of the lead attorneys in EFF's class action suit against AT&T for illegal spying.

"We've been advocating that the only reasonable compromise is a solution to the state secrets problem, where the government prevented the telecoms from putting forward their defense" he said. "It will guarantee that the courts actually rule on the heart of the issue: did the telecoms break the law?"

"So we're very pleased that the House has listened to us."