Wacky Left Loses Another One

The wacky left has been slobbering over the possibility of allowing telecom companies to be sued because they assisted the government in surveillance issues following the 9/11 attacks. Many lawsuits have been filed or are pending, but they're all about to go poof! thanks to a new FISA bill that will grant them immunity:

House and Senate leaders agreed yesterday on surveillance legislation that could shield telecommunications companies from privacy lawsuits, handing President Bush one of the last major legislative victories he is likely to achieve.

The agreement extends the government's ability to eavesdrop on espionage and terrorism suspects while effectively providing a legal escape hatch for AT&T, Verizon Communications and other telecom firms. They face more than 40 lawsuits that allege they violated customers' privacy rights by helping the government conduct a warrantless spying program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The breakthrough on the legislation came hours after the White House agreed to Democratic demands for domestic spending additions to an emergency war funding bill. Taken together, the bills -- two of the last major pieces of legislation to be approved by Congress this year -- suggest that Bush still wields considerable clout on national security issues but now must acquiesce to Democratic demands on favored domestic priorities to secure victory.

The war spending bill, for example, includes $162 billion for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and an additional $95 billion worth of domestic spending on programs such as unemployment insurance and higher-education benefits for veterans. Bush, who had threatened for months to veto the legislation, said he will sign it.

So, we'll give more money to people who probably don't need it in exchange for telecom immunity that should have been a no-brainer. The telecoms did their patriotic duty when the government called and they shouldn't be punished for it.

In addition to the FISA bill, a supplemental war funding bill is in the process of being passed that will extend funding until next Spring and will not include a date certain for a surrender in Iraq. The Dems have tried countless times to pass a bill with a timeline and have failed every time, and now they're afraid to debate the issue during the election campaign. Profiles in courage.