A bill to overhaul foreign-intelligence gathering passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority—and now enjoys the freshly minted backing of the consistently inconsistent Barack Obama, who once threatened to filibuster the legislation

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A bill to overhaul foreign-intelligence gathering passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority--and now enjoys the freshly minted backing of the consistently inconsistent Barack Obama, who once threatened to filibuster the legislation. For decades the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act empowered the intelligence community to gather information overseas without judicial restrictions. Then last year a FISA court ruled that because modern technology often routes overseas digital communications (between, say, Pakistan and Afghanistan) through U.S. networks, such phone and e-mail contacts fall within FISAcourt supervision, regardless of whether those communications involve Americans. Negotiations for a permanent solution to the court's mistake stalled on, among other things, the matter of immunity from lawsuits for telecom companies that assist in the surveillance. Thus, for four months the intelligence community has been hamstrung. Now, finally, a compromise including immunity has been struck and will be sent to the Senate, where Obama has been on both sides of the question: He first promised to back a filibuster over telecom immunity, but quickly watered down that threat to a vague promise to work in the Senate to address immunity concerns while voting for the bill. The MoveOn.org wing of the Democratic party wants a president who consistently supports their anti-defense agenda; most Americans want a president who consistently uses the tools at his disposal to combat terrorists. Both sides lose with Obama.

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