After soundly rejecting the Dodd/Feingold amendment, the Senate also took up a bill by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) (co-sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)) which would have substituted the government as the defendant in the lawsuits against the telecoms over the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
This vote was no closer, going down 30-68, with some Dems who’d voted to strip retroactive immunity voting against it (Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) among them). It seems this was a compromise that made no one happy.
Update: Here’s the final tally.
