RUSH: Yesterday, as you know, we were somewhat celebratory here. We were somewhat celebratory over the Senate Democrats caving on the new FISA bill that contained provisions to grant immunity to telecommunications companies that had previously cooperated with the government in efforts to surveil bad people who intend harm to the United States, i.e., terrorists overseas. The Senate passed it. The House of Representatives, if what everybody is hearing turns out to be true, will recess tomorrow without ever taking the bill up; meaning our intelligence capabilities will, in many, many ways cease to exist. This is unconscionable. This is not politics. They’re playing politics with this. This is Pelosi, who is denying that the surge is working — and, by the way, even the New York Times today — this is so huge. There are big, far reaching measures that have reconciliation written all over them in Iraq. The Sunnis and the Shi’ites are doing a Rodney King, and they’re getting along. And who cares why? You know, the Drive-Bys have been trying to say, ‘Well, it’s only because the US military lucked out. The US military lucked out.’ No, it has nothing to do with luck. The surge caused this. The surge has worked!
The surge has brought about this political reconciliation because it has limited the damage and busted up Al-Qaeda in Iraq, making it less attractive for Sunnis to associate with them. They’re also sharing oil revenues, despite not having a law to share oil revenues. So this is huge. The surge has worked. Pelosi just this week denied that it has worked on the basis of her political calculation that there is no reconciliation in the government, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now they’ve taken up the FISA bill in the House by ignoring it. I’m hearing from a lot of people that they’re just going to recess tomorrow without taking it up, which would mean what? It would mean the lapse of our surveillance authority at midnight tomorrow night. At that point, we’re back to going and getting warrants from the FISA court, which can take weeks. By the time we get the warrant to listen in, the conversation’s over. This is not politics. This is something that directly affects the national security of this country. And the Democrat leadership in the House is responsible for this. I have to tell you, my buddy Andy McCarthy at National Review Online, is dead-on right about this. It’s not just them. They are following the lead in the House of the two Democrat presidential candidates.
Obama showed up to vote on Tuesday for the FISA bill. He voted against it. He voted against the renewing authority for surveillance. Hillary didn’t bother to show up. But she has previously opposed it on other occasions. So the House Democrats are right in line with the Senate Democrat presidential candidates: Obama and Hillary. This is a hanging curving ball for Senator McCain. Senator McCain pounds big time on the fact that he’s the guy to protect the country, that he’s the guy that’s going to understand the threat the country faces and deal with it, and he’s not talked about this — and time’s running out to talk about this. This is made to order on the campaign trail. He was in Burlington, Vermont today, or Burlington, Connecticut. He was in Burlington somewhere. He did a press conference after he made a speech. He could have made a huge deal about this. It’s a hanging softball. It’s batting practice softball, is what this is, just waiting to be knocked out of the park. This is not politics. The Democrats are playing politics with it, but it isn’t. This is for grownups, and this is for real life. This is, to me, the essence of what this, you know, in many regards, the future of this country is all about and who in the world is going to take this kind of thing seriously.
Now, I did hear a little bit of McCain today, and he might have addressed this. He got a question about human rights. So I don’t think he did address it, but he said, ‘Look, I’m for human rights. I have had mine denied. I’m for human rights for the unborn, and I’m for human rights for the born.’ It would have been an excellent opportunity to get into this FISA, because he showed up; he voted for it. He voted for it on Tuesday. This is a great way to distinguish himself and to burnish his credentials on something he’s been pounding for quite a while. But they’ve got ’til noon tomorrow, and this is like who’s going to blink first. We’ll see. But the Democrats in the House might be emboldened here because they’re following the lead of their presidential candidates — and of course the Democrat presidential candidates, the eventual winner is going to be the titular head of the party, which, if it’s Hillary, is not going to please Pelosi. You know, the queen bee syndrome will be in full force.