On Wednesday morning, DFA sent out a national message from our Santa Cruz Organizer Chris Finnie calling for Sen. Feinstein to be held accountable:

The message read in part:

The first vote on retroactive immunity for phone companies is Thursday. Please take action today. Senator Feinstein won't vote with Democrats against the Bush administration's abuse of power. Ask Senator Reid to replace her with someone who will.

We were tracking the calls to Sen. Reid's DC Office and after about 10 minutes, we knew something special was happening.

Carl from San Diego wrote the typical feedback:

voicemail box full 2) staffer busy signal 3) staffer busy signal

Thousands were trying to get through to Sen Reid and the line was busy. But, instead of giving up, you called his Nevada offices to deliver the message. You led the way, and we responded by putting up Sen. Reid's Carson City, Las Vegas, and Reno numbers as well.

Still, we could not have expected what happened next. The comments flowed in and soon, all four numbers were busy and the voicemail was full



As our Political Director Liveblogged:

With only minutes left before the Nevada offices close, we've made over 1900 calls in 8 hours.

And, two comments in the feedback really caught our attention:

Jerry M wrote:

I called the Reno office and got a cheerful staffer who said he'd had 242 calls, all of them against amnesty for the phone companies. He understood Senator Feinstein was also getting a lot of calls. Said he would be calling Senator Reid before closing the office to let him know the count. Said he'd not had a single call in favor.

Michael R wrote:

Spoke with a staff member in the Reno office, he indicated he has gotten other calls on the issue - he said Reid will address the issue directly with Senator Feinstein now and at the beginning of the next session.

And then, it came full circle, and we knew we had a shot. DFA member Chris Finnie (the author of the original email) called Senator Feinstein's office on Wednesday evening and here's what happened.

Here's part of her comment

When I called Feinstein's office, a rather testy staffer told me the senator hadn't decided on her vote yet. I said, "then she shouldn't have told the newspapers she had. And, if her vote is still in question, she'd better vote to protect my rights instead of AT&T's. They can't vote for her, I can."

The rest, as they say, is history. After a number of procedural gimmicks Sen. Feinstein voted for a bill without telecom immunity.

Of course, there was one final interesting twist. Remember Chris, the DFA member who wrote the original email, and gave us the heads up that Sen. Feinstein might be rethinking her vote? Well here's how she found out about our victory:

I didn't know about the vote until I saw Art Torres, chair of the California Democratic Party, at an event tonight. Asked him if he'd seen the DFA email. He said yes and, with a smile said, "You must be pleased. Senator Feinstein voted against immunity. Congratulations!" So I thought you'd all like to know we did get their attention--and even congratulations!

Great work everyone! And, if you want to help DFA continue running such campaigns, please contribute $15 today.

Update 1: A lot of comments have asked for some positive reinforcement for Sen. Feinstein.

Please give her DC Office a call: (202) 224-3841