August 5, 2007 (LPAC)--After days of threats from the White House that they would be labelled "soft on terrorism," 41 Democrats joined all but 2 Republicans Saturday night in voting to pass the White House bill giving the Executive branch the power to expand warrantless wiretapping; it expires in six months. The measure passed 227 for, and 183 against. The two Republicans opposing were Walter Jones of North Carolina, and Timothy Johnson of central Illinois.

As we previously reported, House leaders thought they had an agreement with Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, late in the week, for a timetable and an approach, until McConnell was forced by the White House--i.e. Cheney--to back off and demand more from the House. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday that the bill the Administration demanded would allow wiretapping without warrants, as long as it was "concerning a person abroad." Reyes said this would allow any search inside the U.S. as long as the government claimed it "concerned" Al Qaeda.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said that Congress was being "stampeded by fear-mongering and deception" into supporting the bill. Rep. Jane Harman, the former senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the bill would lead to "potential unprecedented abuse of innocent Americans' privacy."

Rush Holt (D-N.J.): "I'm not comfortable with suspending the Constitution even temporarily" --referring to the bill's six-month expiration provision.