Today the US Senate, in an unprecedented act, granted retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that illegally spied on Americans in cooperation with the Bush Administration. Amendments that would have reiterated support for the 1978 FISA law, including Dianne Feinstein's so-called "exclusivity" amendment that would have confirmed FISA as the exclusive arbiter of wiretap legality, were rejected. Feinstein's "good faith" amendment was rejected, as were Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold's effort to strip telecom immunity from the bill.

Significantly, Dianne Feinstein helped to kill the Dodd-Feingold effort to strip telecom immunity from the bill. And while she did ultimately vote against the FISA bill, it came after she voted FOR cloture on the bill. Were she truly interested in stopping the bill she would have joined Senators Feingold, Dodd, and Leahy in voting against cloture.

Feinstein's press release would have us believe she did all she could to stop immunity:

However, I believe this bill didn't do enough to protect against the assertion of executive power. I have said on many occasions that without the additional language to strengthen and tighten the exclusivity already in FISA, I could not support final passage....

There should never be another warrantless surveillance program. And I continue to believe that there should be a strong statement in law making it crystal clear that FISA must be followed, period.

But her votes against the Dodd-Feingold amendment, and her vote for cloture, contradict these claims. The sad truth is that Senator Feinstein failed to take a consistent stand against telecom immunity and against this bill, and the result is a bill that gives the White House everything it had demanded of the Senate.

Reaction around the blogosphere was damning. At Calitics David Dayen said "Feinstein pulled a Lieberman here" and "[sold] us out and give the phone companies what they wanted for violating civil liberties." Kagro X at Daily Kos said "The US Senate commits suicide on national television" and wondered why Senators even bothered to show up for work if all they were going to do is legitimate Bush's flouting of the law. Glenn Greenwald denounced the entire proceeding:

I used to think that amnesty supporters held their position because they didn't understand this extremely simple point, but now I think that most of them have their position precisely because they do understand it. A lawless "police state" -- and that's the only term that can be used to describe what this bill creates -- is exactly what our political establishment desires.

This defeat stings. Many believed that Feinstein would never have come around and joined us in defense of the Constitution, and that this outcome was assured back in December when Harry Reid brought the immunity-giving Senate Intelligence Committee bill to the floor, and it certainly has played out that way. But it doesn't make it any easier to swallow the stunning abrogation of basic constitutional principles, the direct assault on the rule of law, and the creation of a potential police state - all of which are the outcomes of today's vote. History will not remember this day well.

The fight is not yet completely lost. The House must now reconcile the Senate's evisceration of FISA with their own RESTORE Act, a much better bill that does not grant telecom immunity. Glenn Greenwald and Firedoglake are hosting a petition to convince the House to defend the RESTORE Act and reject the Senate's granting of immunity. It may seem like a longshot, but given the stakes, fighting hard on FISA is well worth the effort.