“I said that when I read the bill, and talked to the folks at the ACLU who had been following it, that it was not clear. I raised it when appearing on Countdown with the hope that someone might figure it out. But that is the nature of this badly drafted bill that it is not clear what it does and does not do, and the drafters are not saying. But even if the bill is unclear there is no question the Bush Administration is not going to do anything to the telecoms, so the question is whether a future DOJ could — and here there is case law protecting the telecoms. But there may be language buried in the bill that protects them as well but it can only be found by reading the bill with a half dozen other laws which I have not yet done. I made no declarative statements rather I only raised questions that jumped at me when reading the 114 page monster.”

The point, is that this bill is such a piece of sh*t, that not even the best constitutional lawyers can say whether it provides any real additional protections. So we are right back where we started. It is subject to the interpretation of the President. Not rule of law, but rule of presidential personality. No worries, though. In Obama we Trust.

If you read the whole post you will see that I was only bringing it up in the context of showing an identical Olbermann pattern. First the high dudgeon damning of a specific action by a politician in one of his “special comments”, Then bending over backward to soft-pedal or excuse the exact same behavior when it is Barack Obama.

“I watched those videos a few times, i never heard KO “support” Obama for voting for FISA. – CH

Really? You do not see any difference between KO saying about Bush supporting the FISA bill on the one hand that it is:

“shameless, breathless, literally textbook example of Fascism — the merged efforts of government and corporations that answer to no government…. Now it begins to look like the bureaucrats of the Third Reich, trying to protect the Krupp family, the industrial giants, re-writing the laws of Germany for their benefit.”

And saying about Obama supporting FISA on the other hand:

“Senator Obama also refusing to cower even to the left on the subject of warrantless wiretapping…not cowering to the left, not going along with the conventional, the new conventional thinking on the FISA bill, that’s something altogether different, isn’t it?”

Really?

What about his statement in his Daily Kos diary?

“Seriously, there is little in the polls to suggest McCain has anything to run with other than terror . . . . So why hand them a brick to hit him with — Obama Voted Against FISA — if voting Aye enhances his chances of getting himself his own Attorney General to prosecute FISA.”

He could not be more explicit. This statement says he is not going to criticize Obama for supporting FISA, he is going to give him Obama a free pass for supporting what he considers a “fascist” bill, not because it is right, but just because he wants Obama to be president. Journalism at its finest.

Whatever.

No matter. Apparently Olbermann has blinked. On his Friday “Countdown show he announced that on Monday he is going to do a “Special Comment” on Obama and FISA saying “Senator Obama wants his cake and to eat it too.”. We’ll see.

Why are we bringing this up now?

but it DOES restore the 4th amendment like KO’s guest said. Isn’t that what is most important out of all of this?

Agreed. See my comment about this here. Not an easy decision, but a good compromise Obama made to restore many of the civil liberties Bush completely ignored.

Keith Olbermann: the address from 2001 of his, the parents of Katy Tur and the civil actions

http://www.webofdeception.com