Update Thurs 2 pm - Sen. Dodd put a hold on the wiretap bill - thank him here!!! 

On Thursday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller made a deal with Bush to give retroactive immunity to the telephone giants that have been spying on all our calls and emails since February 2001.

The draft Senate bill has the support of the intelligence committee's chairman, John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), and Bush's director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell. It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States.

Of course there was never any "legal directive" for Bush's illegal spying, just some legalese lies written by John Yoo and kept secret from everyone in the Justice Department. That's why Qwest refused to spy on its customers in 2001. And that's why former Attorney General John Ashcroft, James Comey, and other top Justice Department officials dramatically threatened to quit when they finally were allowed to read Yoo's "legal directive."

But if the Rockefeller-Bush law passes, the telephone companies will have no trouble finding a "loyal Bushie" judge who will bless Yoo's lies as "legal." And not only will the telcos get immunity for all their past spying, they will have no reason to refuse to cooperate with all future spying requests from George Bush, Rudy Mussolini, Hillary Clinton, or any future President - or any future Monica Goodling who works for them.

So why is Rockefeller selling our freedom to Bush? Simple - for the cold hard cash he gets from AT&T, Verizon, Bellsouth, and little-known wiretap contractors.

Fortunately for America, Rockefeller is just one Senator.

Democrats warned yesterday that the Senate intelligence panel's consensus bill must gain the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman and ranking Republican have said, like their House counterparts, that they are wary of granting immunity to telecommunications companies.

In June, the Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the documents underlying the warrantless surveillance program, and Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking Republican Arlen Specter (Pa.) said they wanted to see those documents before endorsing any immunity clause. "I'm not going to buy a pig in a poke and commit to retroactive immunity when I don't know what went on" in the past, Specter said Tuesday on CNN's "Situation Room." "I agree with Arlen," Leahy said on the program.

Specter is famous for always caving to Bush, but Leahy has a little more dedication to the Constitution and could stand up to Rockefeller if he wants to.

And it takes just one Senator to stop a bill by putting a hold on it.

So let's pressure Leahy, Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Robert Byrd, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, and Harry Reid to stand up for American Freedom, not warrantless wiretapping with immunity.

And let's make Speaker Pelosi deliver on her third promise to Arianna Huffington:

3) that House Democrats will put up a major fight over the Bush administration’s desire to make permanent the FISA law passed in August, particularly over the issue of retroactive immunity that the Senate has already given in on.

Update 1: Big Tent Democrat is a big fan of Chris Dodd's and he wants Dodd to lead a filibuster, but that's not good enough because we can't count on 40 Senators to block immunity - we'd be lucky to get 30.

Update 2: Big Kos agrees with me that a one-Senator hold is the way to go, and he nominates Dodd:

Dodd needs to put a hold on this bill and make life miserable for anyone trying to move it forward. Meanwhile, House Democrats should continue to refuse to provide immunity to lawbreaking companies for actions they refuse to even disclose...

Dodd can give himself a nice boost by doing everything possible to put a wrench into this disastrous capitulation. So can the other Democratic candidates in the Senate, but I've lost any hope in seeing real leadership from them on such key issues. And no, I'm not talking about a "carefully worded press release". I'm talking real leadership.

I have a longer list of nominations above.

Update 3: Russ Feingold issues one of those "carefully worded press releases."

"As a member of the SSCI, I will strongly oppose any FISA legislation that fails to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, overseas and here at home.  When the Committee considers this legislation today, I will also fight to reject immunity for anyone alleged to have cooperated with the Administration's illegal warrantless wiretapping program. The documents made available by the White House for the first time this week only further demonstrate that the program was illegal and that there is no basis for granting retroactive immunity to those who allegedly cooperated. The one silver lining of the flawed FISA bill passed in August was that it had a 6-month expiration date.  It would be shameful to miss this opportunity to fix the law.  It is time for Congress to stand up for the rights of Americans and to defend the Constitution and the rule of law."

Yes - and it's time for Feingold to put a hold on the bill if it gets out of the Intelligence Committee.

Update 4: Let's wipe the smirk off Bush's face.