"Speaking at the New American Foundation the last week in June, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) argued that Senate Democrats, including Barack Obama, are wrong on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) compromise the House and Senate reached with the Bush administration. Feingold said the immunity provision for telephone companies that engaged in warrantless surveillance of American citizens is bad policy and "It may well prevent us from ever getting to the core issue . . . which is that the president ran an illegal program which I think is potentially equivalent to an impeachable offense."

But immunity for telecoms is not the central issue, Feingold said, emphasizing that it has shifted the focus of the Congress and the public from the most critical question regarding FISA. The compromise bill provides no real judicial oversight or any restraint on surveillance. "I just hold up my Blackberry and say anytime you e-mail your daughter or text message her in England, anybody who contacts your son or daughter in Iraq, anyone who has a kid who's on junior year abroad, anyone who has a business associate anywhere around the world, that information is all sucked up in a data base over which there is essentially no control, for the first time in American history," Feingold said. "This is an astonishing giveaway."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) postponed until July a vote on FISA that he had scheduled for late June. Feingold, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Chris Dodd (D-CT) are leading the Senate opposition to the bill, which will probably pass, because Senate Democrats will capitulate, as did House Democrats. Feingold said the House was better than the Senate on FISA. "The House at least stood firm for a while," he said, describing what has become the principled position of the Democratic Congress: standing firm for a while.

Some Obama supporters have responded quickly to their candidate's position on FISA, signing on to a protest on the Obama campaign's website. Five days after the group was set up, it had more than 6,500 members and an action plan to pressure the senator on the issue." (Lou DuBose, The Washington Spectator, July 15, 2008)