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FISA update
June 26, 2008 10:00 AM

Bad News:
In an 80-15 vote, the Senate voted for cloture on the FISA debate. Clinton, McCain and Obama skipped this vote. That means there are now 30 hours for debate on the FISA measure. From Ian Welsh at Firedoglake:

The FISA Cloture vote just passed. The Senate will now consider the motion to proceed with the bill, then they'll head to the bill itself (corrected procedural details, h/t and thanks to CBolt). Various motions will be put forward to strip immunity, odds are they will fail. Then a number of the 80 who voted to restrict debate will vote against FISA so they can say they were against the bill. However this was the real vote, and the rest is almost certainly nothing but kabuki for the rubes.

Here's the list of those who voted against cloture (and for upholding the Bill of Rights):

Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)

Marginally Less Bad News:
30 Hours is 30 hours. It might be enough to push the vote on the bill until after the recess. At the moment, delay is our first, last, best and only hope:

30 hours may just be enough if the other bills in the Senate's queue are foregrounded to delay this to the recess, if those opposing use absolutely every trick at their disposal. But that's about it, and it may be delaying the inevitable.

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