I haven't written much about this lately, but it appears to be moving towards a front burner status. It, in this case, is the issue of the various bills in Congress to deal with Bush's illegal wiretapping. The most notorious of these bills, the Arlen "two-faced" Specter FISA bill gives the President sweeping powers to eavesdrop while retroactively legalizing what has already been done illegally. Glenn Greenwald has a great post up today that summarizes the various bills and their status.

It looks like the buck is being passed to the full Senate after party-line votes in committee. It will be interesting to see if the Republicans have the guts to bring it to a vote before the mid-terms. On the one side, it may be their last chance to give Bush a get-out-of-jail free card. On the other side, many Republicans want nothing to do with Bush or his policies before the election. Whether it actually comes to the floor, then, may be a 50/50 proposition.

Let's assume it does. Is this not the perfect opportunity and timing to filibuster? The law is bad and well worth opposing. The polls all back up the Democrats, including the polling on limiting Presidential power to eavesdrop. Exposing the totalitarian tendencies of Congressional Republicans can only be a good thing. "Some" might claim that the downside is appearing obstructionist in the war on terra, but like Bill Clinton said the other day, "that dog won't hunt and is getting pretty mangy". Wonder if the Senate Dems have the stones?