Blue lapdogs

OPINION:

Thanks to the Democrats’ Blue Dog Coalition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to get away with preventing members from voting on critical national security legislation. The bill would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to provide retroactive liability protection to telecommunications companies that helped the government monitor terrorist communications after Sept. 11. On Jan. 28, 21 Blue Dogs wrote a letter to Mrs. Pelosi urging her to permit a vote on bipartisan Senate-passed legislation protecting these companies from lawsuits. They said it is “critical” that “we update the FISA laws in a timely matter” because “the consequences of not passing such a measure could place our national security at risk.” After that, the Blue Dogs disappeared.

Since January, Mrs. Pelosi has sent the House on vacation at least three times in order to avoid debating the issue, and it is entirely possible that she will try to do the same thing with regard to the upcoming Memorial Day recess. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has said he hopes to have some “compromise” FISA measure ready to be voted on before the recess but the Democratic leadership has made similar promises in the past, only to disregard them after the ACLU, the trial lawyers and left-wing blogs protested. In March, most of the 21 signers of the letter joined Mrs. Pelosi in voting for a FISA bill without retroactive liability protection. The bill passed 213-197, with 14 Blue Dogs providing the margin of victory for Mrs. Pelosi.

In an effort to force the hand of the Blue Dogs and the Democratic leadership, House Republicans have begun circulating a discharge petition. If they can get 218 signatures, the House would get to vote on the bipartisan Senate bill. But with only 198 members of the House, Republicans need at least 20 Democratic supporters. As of yesterday, 190 members had signed the discharge petition — all of them Republican.

Blue Dogs are learning the hard way that it isn’t smart politics back home to be seen as working with a San Francisco Democrat like Mrs. Pelosi to derail national security legislation. One of the 21 Blue Dogs who signed the letter, Rep. Chris Carney of Pennsylvania, claimed he had not signed the discharge petition because no Republican leader had asked him. In response, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt wrote to Mr. Carney inviting him to sign. In the coming days, FISA is likely to become a more and more uncomfortable subject for Mrs. Pelosi’s Blue Dog lapdogs.