Congratulations to Rep. Tim Walz

"Opinion"

06/20/2008

Paul Munnis


Congratulation to Tim Walz, First Minnesota Congressional District Congressman, for his voting against the “FISA Amendments Act.”

The Bill is a sham for allowing Bush and the Telecom Companies to break the laws on domestic spying against citizens and granting the Administration immunity from having to face a Court for their lawbreaking acts. It should have never been allowed on the House floor for a vote.

All the nonsense about making FISA dominant is so much hooey. FISA was dominant before Bush broke the law.

The Bill passed in the House and now goes to the Senate where we will see what our Senators are made of. We expect Senators. Klobuchar and Coleman to vote against this Bill and we will soon see if they will do so or not.

In his “No Vote,” Tim Walz correctly stated:

“There are many parts of this bill that I support. It reaffirms that FISA is the exclusive means for electronic surveillance, and it strengthens protections for Americans at home and abroad. If this was all that this bill included, I could support it.

“Unfortunately, the bill also contains an unprecedented free pass for the Bush Administration’s past actions. It does not allow judicial review of the Administration’s use of warrantless wiretaps, and the process it puts in place to review the telecommunications companies’ participation in that illegal program has a predetermined outcome – immunity.

Walz went on top say:

“Incredibly, this bill actually says that as long as the telecommunications companies can prove that the Bush Administration told them this action was legal, they can get off scott-free. Today, my colleague Roy Blunt called the process of granting immunity to these telecoms ‘a formality.’

When Richard Nixon said that “when the President does it, that means it’s not illegal,” many Americans were horrified that any President would consider himself above the law. This legislation is even worse, because it essentially says ‘if the President tells you do so something, it’s not illegal,’ even if it violates the plain letter of the law. The process set out in this bill to rubberstamp the actions of the Bush Administration is contradictory to the rule of law in this country.

“This free pass for the phone companies isn’t needed to protect Americans – in fact, it protects only those in the Bush Administration who knowingly broke the law. We can protect our security while protecting our shared values and our freedoms. Unfortunately, this bill does not do that, and I have no choice but to oppose it.

“I have repeatedly said that I could not support a bill that provides a free pass for illegal behavior, no matter who committed it. Our laws matter and they should be applied equally and fairly to the President, Congress, telecommunications companies, and every other citizen.”

Good for Tim Walz. He sees through the smokescreen and he has represented us properly. He has my vote come this November.