One word: money.
On March 14 of this year the House passed an amendment that rejected retroactive immunity for phone carriers who helped the National Security Agency carry out the illegal wiretapping program without proper warrants. Ninety-four House Democrats voted in favor of this measure — rejecting immunity — on March 14, then “changed” to vote in favor of the June 20 House bill — approving immunity.
…
Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:
- $8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
- $4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)
…
- $9,659 to each member of the House voting “YES” (105-Dem, 188-Rep)
- $4,810 to each member of the House voting “NO” (128-Dem, 1-Rep)
Of course, those averages represent a huge dispersion: Several senior Democrats, including Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel, received over $25,000. Many junior representatives received little or nothing.
But the dummy variables — “switched vote” and “voted Yes” — appear to be statistically significant, to say the least.
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My only other thought about the telecom immunity provision is the spuriousness of the argument that the companies might honestly have been unsure of the legality or illegality of the warrantless wiretapping program when they were first (secretly) approached by the federal government. Utter nonsense. These are big companies. Big companies with lawyers on the payroll. Lots of lawyers. Lots and lots and lots of lawyers. They knew full well they were breaking the law. There is absolutely no doubt about that.
(And, as this post demonstrates, they also had politicians on the payroll. Lots and lots and lots of politicians.)
2 responses so far ↓
Link Mark // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:34 am
I'm not so sure it's that simple. That amounts to about a $3400 difference to vote for the bill. In the grand scheme of things, $3400 is peanuts to a Congressman's campaign, especially if it carries with it the possible loss of votes. But I don't want to delve too deeply into that issue, which is something that eventually is going to require a lengthy post on my part.
One thing that I find very odd and interesting about all this, though, is the amount that the telecoms are spending on lobbying and campaign contributions on this issue. As far as I can tell, their potential monetary liability on these lawsuits is pretty small, certainly less than the amount they are spending on lobbying.
Link KipEsquire // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:53 am
I have no doubt that there are more issues at work, especially Hoyer's and Emanuel's influence over backbenchers. But the numbers are the numbers.
Tom, what "lifeboat rules" are you talking about? Surely not this one? And as for "who files these kinds of lawsuits," my answer is: people who care.