Feingold: Fools Rush In (To Amend FISA)

Negotiations continue between the White House and Senate Democrats to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and a deal might be done as early as this evening. But Sen. Russell Feingold tells Roll Call (sub.req.) that he’d rather scrap the summer congressional recess than scrap civil liberties in the name of getting a deal done by Monday, when Congress takes a holiday:

Saying Congressional Democrats and Republicans were moving “awfully quickly” on a White House proposal to make it easier to eavesdrop on suspected overseas terrorists, Feingold said he is in “no hurry” to leave town for the August recess.

“I don’t feel the need to get out of here. I would much rather stay here than have us make a terrible mistake,” said Feingold, who has made a name for himself as a champion on civil liberties in the Senate. “This is not the kind of thing that should be done on the fly, and I am prepared to stay here as long as it takes to fix it. Or, if they need force this through, I’m not going to make it easy, if they don’t make it better.”

More:

Asked whether he would attempt to filibuster any bill that comes up prior to the Senate’s adjournment for the August recess, Feingold said he would prefer to be able to give his stamp of approval to the measure.

“But at the moment I’m feeling a little worried that that isn’t going to be possible,” he said. “It’s not moving in the direction that I’m hoping, but I think it might be moving in the wrong direction, in which case the options have to be potentially utilized.”