The Republican leadership in Congress has opted to throw its weight behind Bush’s two “most controversial national security programs, warrantless wiretapping and extrajudicial military tribunals.” It’s not cut and dry, as “party leaders are having trouble getting all their members on board, including the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.” The GOP leadership also risks, by backing Bush’s demands, “being labeled by Democrats as a rubber stamp for an unpopular president,” in the midst of a heated mid-term election.

With prodding from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10 to 8 along party lines to approve a bill negotiated with the White House to allow — but not require — Bush to submit the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program to a secret court for constitutional review.

As early as next week, the bill could come before the Senate. It is considered by civil liberties advocates and Democrats to be a “ratification of the administration’s current surveillance program, which monitors the overseas phone calls and e-mails of some Americans when one party is suspected of links to terrorism.”

In a press release sent out earlier today, the ACLU slamed the Senate Judiciary Committee’s approval of the NSA spying bills, while urging Congress to support Senator Dianne Feinstein’s bi-partisan bill that also passed:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Wednesday, September 13, 2006

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today strongly rebuked the Senate Judiciary Committee for adopting legislation that approves warrantless spying on Americans by the National Security Agency. The move follows a recent court decision finding the surveillance both illegal and unconstitutional. The Bush administration has thus far stonewalled efforts by the committee to conduct meaningful oversight over the program.

“Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee acted as a rubber stamp for the administration’s abuse of power,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “Congress has a right and obligation to conduct meaningful oversight on the unlawful actions of the president. But instead of investigating lawbreaking, the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to make it legal. We urge the full Senate to reject any attempts to ratify this illegal program.”

By a vote of 10 to 8, the committee approved S.2453, the “National Security Surveillance Act.” That bill, crafted by Vice-President Dick Cheney and Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) gives the president the option of complying – or not – with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the protections of the Fourth Amendment.

The bill would also: vastly increase the government’s statutory power to examine all international phone conversations and emails, making warrantless surveillance of Americans’ conversations the rule rather then the exception and expand the ability to conduct warrantless physical searches of Americans’ homes.

Senator Mike DeWine’s (R-OH) “Terrorist Surveillance Program Act of 2006″ (S. 2455) was approved by a vote of 10 to 8. This bill would weaken the probable cause requirement for spying on people in the US – sweeping in innocent Americans – allow extended warrantless surveillance, limit judicial review and punish whistleblowers.

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Improvement and Enhancement Act of 2006″ (S. 3001), co-sponsored by Senator Specter, was also approved today in the only bipartisan vote taken by the Judiciary Committee, with the support of Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Specter, on a vote of 10 to 8. Her bill would restore the rule of law by requiring the president to follow the exclusive procedures set by Congress for wiretapping Americans and it would also streamline the procedures to seek a FISA warrant.

The ACLU has urged Congress to reject any legislation that would authorize the president’s continued warrantless surveillance of Americans, as the Specter and DeWine bills would do, and has noted that Congress has failed to thoroughly investigate the secret programs authorized by the president. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has disclosed that President Bush personally interfered to stop an investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility into the NSA’s warrantless surveillance. Vice President Cheney also personally intervened to block telecommunications companies from giving any testimony to Congress about the extent of the warrantless surveillance of Americans they have assisted the administration in obtaining. And, recently, a federal court in Detroit found the program to be both illegal and unconstitutional. That case is stayed pending appeal.

“The approval of partisan bills to ratify the illegal spying on Americans demonstrates cowardly obedience to the president, to the detriment of the liberty and privacy of the American people and the rule of law,” said Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy. “Stonewalling and illegal spying have been rewarded with the Senate Judiciary Committee’s partisan approval of administration misconduct. Only Senator Feinstein’s bipartisan bill would help restore the rule of law. We call on the Senate to stand up for the Constitution and reject the Big Brother bills as non-starters that give the administration a blank check.”

A press release and a break down of the Feinstein NSA spying bill is available here.

Meanwhile on the legislation of the military commissions for trying terrorism suspects, “Frist and other GOP leaders remain at odds with many of their rank-and-file members” over the bill.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) are holding firm against the White House and Frist in their support of an alternative tribunal bill that would limit the use of classified evidence and coerced testimony in terrorism prosecutions while maintaining broader protections for detainees against cruel and inhumane treatment. They said they will press ahead with their bill, despite the political sensitivity of the controversy in a key election year.

There’s buzz in the blogosphere for Democrats to filibuster the NSA bill. Glenn Greenwald has more here and so does The Left Coaster.

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