White House reneges on FISA deal

By Creature

AP is reporting tonight that negotiations between House Democrats and the White House over changes to the FISA law have broken down. The White House denies this, as they deny most things, instead insisting there really are democrats on the other end of the line. Why the struggle for a deal? Because the White House doesn't want a bill. They want a talking point.

House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes said talks were at a standstill after the White House reneged on an earlier offer accepted by Democrats.

Asked if the negotiations were still ongoing, Reyes said: "No."

Reyes, D-Texas, said Democrats had agreed to three points that McConnell said the Bush administration needed.

"The DNI subsequently sent us a rewritten piece of legislation that was about 80 percent different," Reyes said. [emphasis me]

A deal was set. The Democrats had accepted and the administration pulled out. After being baited all week to get something done the Democrats came to the table--why they allowed themselves to be pushed to the table by a 28% president is another story--and they were played the bi-partisan fool by a White House that had no intention of making a deal. And, why should the White House make a deal, the lack of one allows for this kind of presidential politiking:

In his remarks, Bush coupled his demand for legislation with a threat. He said would veto any bill by the Democratic-led Congress that his intelligence director deemed unable "to prevent an attack on the country."

"We've worked hard and in good faith with the Democrats to find a solution, but we are not going to put our national security at risk," Bush said after meeting with counterterror and homeland security officials at FBI headquarters. "Time is short."

The White House created the need to amend FISA. They created the cloud of urgency to pass the amendment. And now they get to keep hammering the Democrats by reneging on the deal. It's all part of their new PR blitz. Whether it be a vice president on the TV, or a racist radio-host at the White House, they are in message-mode and the Democrats have played the pawn, once again.

Note: AP has three versions of this story up on the Tubes. The first, published before the White House interjected their two cents about the breakdown in negotiations. The second, and the one I used, contains White House caveats, but still fairly represented the Democrats side. And, the third, loses the word "renege" completely and relies almost exclusively on White House spin. It's not a pretty evolution, but worth a read if only to track the blame as it is shifted onto the Democrats or at least muddled to seem that way.

Update: The Muckraking folks are all over this FISA fiasco.

Update II: Looks like the Senate passed their version and we wait for the House vote tomorrow.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day -- and since all versions of the AP article now lead to the Bush-heavy one I've pasted them, in their entirety, under the original post at SotD.)