(Updates) Capitulation Day on FISA

Rachel Maddow and constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley discuss the Senate's cave-in

See voting result updates below the fold.

Today's the day for the Senate showcase on political convenience and expediency on FISA. Apparently it's focus groups before the Fourth Amendment or the rule of law. Hey, it's not their problem, as Jonathan Turley explains in the above clip. "The founders would have found this incomprehensible," he says. Many of us do too.

So far, a significant majority of our noble Senators have defeated the Dodd amendment to strip the immunity provisions from the bill by a 32-66 margin. They then proceeded to off the Specter amendment, which would allow broader court review and require the cases to be dismissed if the court determines that the warrantless wiretapping programming was legal, by a margin of 37-61. Next they killed Sen. Bingaman's amendment, which would delay the immunity and make it contingent upon the results of a report on the telecom surveillance by the Inspector General, by a 42-56 vote.

Bravo Senators! No wonder the approval rating of the Congress is down to an all-time low of NINE PERCENT according to the latest Rasmussen survey.

The Senate is now in recess and will reconvene at 2:15 PM EDT to vote on cloture and the bill itself. The telecom lobbyists and felons in the White House must be ecstatic!

Update: Here are the Dems who voted for Dodd's amendment to strip retroative telecom immunity from the bill. Remember these names -- and then see how they vote on the bill itself:

YEAs ---32
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Casey (D-PA) Clinton (D-NY)	Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Harkin (D-IA) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Menendez (D-NJ)	Murray (D-WA) Obama (D-IL) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

The spineless Dems who voted against Dodd's amendment:

Bayh (D-IN), Carper (D-DE), Conrad (D-ND), Feinstein (D-CA), Inouye (D-HI), Johnson (D-SD), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), McCaskill (D-MO), Mikulski (D-MD), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO), Webb (D-VA).

And of course faux-Dem-Lieberman Party-Independent Joe voted nay too. No surprise there. My biggest disappointments are McCaskill and Webb, whom I've generally come to admire, and Feinstein, who represents a deep Blue state. I think Bayh should be stricken from consideration by Obama as a possible VP based on this vote alone.

More to come on the other votes when they're available.

Update: Cloture passed 72-26. FISA Amendments Act passed 69-28. Obama voted for the bill as advertised. Clinton voted against it, probably to show how much more liberal she is than Obama. We can all predict how she would have voted if she had the nomination in hand. Good job by Tester from Montana who voted nay even though he represents what's still considered a Red state.

Shout out to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who voted the right way on everything and worked hard to get support for his amendment. Thank you, Senator. McCain didn't bother to show up to vote today.

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