Why is so-called Democrat Diane Feinstein trying to destroy the rule of law on warrantless surveillance?

[Welcome, Grey-turtlenecked ones.]

Call me a stupid DFH, but if humongous corporations just get a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card whenever they break the law, what incentives do they have to obey the law in the first place?

Isn’t that an obvious question? Not, apparently, to our DiFi. The Good Glenn:

Matt Stoller details what increasingly appears to be the eagerness of the Democratic Congress to grant retroactive immunity to the telecom companies for having violated our country’s eavesdropping laws in enabling the President to spy on the conversations of their customers without warrants.

Yet as Stoller documents — based on his conversations with Caroline Fredrickson from the ACLU — several key Democrats in Congress are actively working to ensure that this happens. Stoller notes that “The Senate Judiciary Committee is hamstrung by Dianne Feinstein, who prevents a majority … .” On issues of intelligence, judiciary and oversight, Feinstein really has become the new Joe Lieberman, repeatedly siding with the right-wing of the Republican caucus on key issues and thus actively enabling the worst abuses of the Bush administration.

Just what we needed. Another one.

At The Huffington Post, Art Levine echoes these reports and adds:

A grim sign is the way the ACLU, normally an ally of progressive Democrats, is being kept in the dark by the Democratic leadership about their plans to “compromise” with the administration, and copies of proposed bills are being kept hidden

Which is exactly what happened when Harry and Nancy got together to gut the Fourth Amendment at midnight before blowing town for vacation in August. That is starting to look so not accidental, now.

And Glenn’s bottom line is this:

If pressure cannot be brought to bear to stop Democrats from enacting extremist, Bush-enabling special interest measures like this, what reasonable argument can be made to support the view that it has been even marginally better that Democrats control Congress? As I noted the other day, retroactive immunity is something the Bush White House tried but failed to obtain in October, when the Republicans — under Bill Frist and Denny Hastert — controlled the Congress.

Bingo.

What Bush can’t get from Frist and Hastert, he does get from Reid and Pelosi? WTF?

NOTE No money for the Democratic Party. Money for anything Dean controls. Money for MoveOn. Money for the individual Democrats who are honorable. Especially money for primary challengers to Bush Dogs.

UPDATE Stoller has more:

The DCCC and DSCC need to be aware of what’s going to happen when this legislation passes, which is that online fundraising is going to drop as it did in July. Only this time we’re going to organize around it and try and actively seize those revenue streams to pursue primary challenges, since it’s obvious that Democratic leaders are simply out to lunch.

Caroline’s going to be blogging on this on Open Left. If the Democratic leadership doesn’t step up and stop this, we have to figure out a way to react that creates pressure, real pressure, on them. Any suggestions?

What we’re all looking for….

UPDATE Via Digby, DiFi lets vote-stealing Republican operative Hans von Spakovsky’s nomination to the Federal Elections Commission through for the floor vote. If DiFi were any more in the tank, she’d be wearing fins.