Modified rapture.

The detail is still coming, but it looks like Leahy managed to get the FISA reform bill to the Senate Floor without the immunity section, through some tricky procedural maneuvering (perhaps in combination with Spector). Pure speculation, but good for a limited happy dance.

And how I hope that the note of skepticism some of you may have detected in my headline turns out to be false, false, false, and that the Democrats figure out that coming out in favor of the Constitution is not only the right thing to do, but good politics. No matter what the [cough] Democratic [cough] strategists or the Village might say.

NOTE Leah actually called to tell me (!). It had been a frustrating day, with feeds that didn’t work or gave off strange whistling noises, no news, wrong news, good news that didn’t matter, and now this.

UPDATE FDL has the coverage. Needless to say, Chris Dodd is coming out of this looking very, very good. Leahy looks good. Upchuck and DiFi look like shit, Rockefeller looks like a weak-minded weasel, and if Reid somehow allows retroactive immunity back in the bill, it’s going to look like exactly what would be happening: He’d be doing Bush’s work. Please, can we let this play out in the courts, and get Congress involved only if there’s another Federalist Society coup? Thank you.

UPDATE Now, it’s down to Harry, and in two ways: Whether the good Leahy bill gets “reconciled” with the evil Rockefeller bill, and whether it can be filibustered:

The Intelligence Committee bill includes an immunity clause. Sens. Feinstein and Whitehouse sit on the committee and voted in favor of telephone immunity there, too.

Reid does have the prerogative of reconciling the two versions of the bill before it reaches the floor, they said.

If it is the version approved by the Judiciary Committee, then Republicans and the handful of Democrats known to favor giving the telephone companies immunity could have to introduce an amendment to the legislation on the floor of the Senate.

Reid would decide whether such an amendment would require a normal cloture vote of 60 votes or a straight majority of 51 votes to be reattached to the legislation, lobbyists said.

Glenn agrees. It’s down to Harry, now.