So Harry Reid announced that the Senate would take up new FISA legislation, which would include retroactive immunity for telecom companies that broke the law and helped the Bush administration do warrantless spying (see this New York Times story for an overview). Chris Dodd said that he'd filibuster the bill. But now Reid's insisting that Dodd and friends are going to have to do a "real" filibuster:
[I]f people think they are going to talk this to death, we are going to be in here all night. This is not something we are going to have a silent filibuster on. If someone wants to filibuster this bill, they are going to do it in the openness of the Senate.
That's nice, but, umm... how come Chris Dodd of all people is the only senator who has to do a "real" filibuster? I don't recall Reid threatening to "be in here all night" when the GOP blocked the Webb amendment, or the habeas corpus bill, or the energy-bill provisions shifting tax breaks away from oil companies and toward renewables, or any of the other bills the Republicans have been filibustering at an unprecedented rate, etc.
--Bradford Plumer