As a vote on warrantless wiretapping looms in Congress, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are poised to take opposite sides of the issue as their battle heats up over national security.
Congressional leaders held closed-door negotiations Tuesday over how to update the soon-to-expire Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The bill sets the terms for how the government can eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails. Leadership aides said hopes that a compromise bill might come up for a vote this week are waning.
The major roadblock to the bill’s passage is how to deal with telecommunications companies that provided Bush administration officials accessto customer conversations following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Many moderate Democrats and Republicans want to protect the phone companies from liability to varying degrees. Liberal Democrats do not want any immunity granted.
Neither Obama nor McCain fall in the middle.
Obama has clearly stated he opposes any form of retroactive immunity. In the past, Obama has voted to block immunity and he is fully expected to do so again when this compromise reaches the Senate, perhaps as early as next week.
McCain this month said he supports giving full immunity to the telecom companies, which were provided written assurances from the executive branch that they were not breaking the law.
Despite his voting record, some believe McCain has been ambiguous about certain aspects of FISA, including the retroactive immunity.
“Sen. McCain consistently voted to expand the government’s wiretapping authority and sanction retroactive immunity,” said Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is opposed to retroactive immunity and other aspects of the compromise measure that are under consideration.
In a statement last month, the McCain campaign said granting retroactive immunity “supports the continuing efforts of participating companies yet should be done with explicit statements that this is not a blessing for future activities.”
The statement came after a top aide said McCain would only support immunity for the telecom companies if Congress first held hearings on the matter and the companies involved apologized.
Left-wing bloggers, meanwhile, are calling on Obama, as the newly minted leader of the party, to take a harder line on the bill.
“Senator Obama has the power to end this,” said a writer on the blog TalkLeft. “This is an excellent opportunity for Obama to show his leadership skills and where he stands on civil liberties and constitutional issues.”
