Harry Reid is set to bring a FISA fix bill to the floor today, a bill that would correct some of the most egregious problems of the Protect America Act. Remember that one? The one that Congress rushed through just before August recess on the basis of a bunch of bogus "threats" by al Qaeda on Capitol Hill. Yesterday, the Senate received a closed door briefing from Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, and Attorney General, Michael Mukasey. Who knows what stories McConnell and Mukasey had to scare our already quaking lawmakers this time? If they don't grant the telcos retroactive amnesty from prosecution for unlawfully spying on Americans, al Qaeda will steal Christmas?

Because that's what it's all about this time. Harry Reid has a choice. He can bring one of two bills to the floor. The Intelligence Committee reported out their "fix" of the bill which includes telco amnesty. The Judiciary Committee one that doesn't include it. Fourteen members of Reid's caucus, including all of the presidential candidates, are on record expressly asking Reid to to make the FISA bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) the base bill to be considered on the Senate floor. Or he can bring the bill that the administration wants to the floor, the one that will be more likely to keep the record of illegal spying by this administration under wraps.

What's Reid going to do?

Word is as of now, he's going to reject the request of his fellow Dems, and bring telco amnesty to the floor in the form of the Intelligence Committee bill, possibly over the objections of Chris Dodd, who has stated his intent to place a hold on any amnesty bill, and even a potential filibuster by his own caucus. The Judiciary bill will be offered as an amendment to that base bill, and amendment that is sure to fail.

It's not just the blogosphere that has a problem with this. Here's what the NYT editorial page has to say:

Mr. Bush, of course, wants fewer, not more, restrictions and wants those powers to be made permanent. He also wants amnesty for telecommunications companies that gave Americans’ private data to the government for at least five years without a warrant. Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, seems intent on doing the president’s bidding. He has indicated that instead of the Judiciary Committee’s bill, he may put on the floor a deeply flawed measure from the Senate Intelligence Committee that dangerously expands the government’s powers and gives undeserved amnesty to the telecommunications companies. The White House says amnesty is intended to ensure future cooperation but seems truly aimed at making sure the public never learns the extent of the companies’ involvement in illegal wiretapping. That will leave Democratic senators like Christopher Dodd and Russ Feingold in the absurd position of having to stage filibusters against their own party’s leadership to try to forestall more harm to civil liberties.

Reid won't only be going against Feingold and Dodd on this. He'll be going against Daniel Akaka and Bob Menendez--not your average liberal firebrands, but Senators who signed on to that letter opposing telco amnesty.

He's also be going against Senators Biden, Clinton, and Obama, all of whom will hopefully remember their promise to support Dodd's filibuster, if necessary.

It's time for some real leadership in the Senate, for someone to stand up to Bush. This would be a great place to start, and our presidential candidates are just the people for the job.