Letters to the Editor
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Overwhelmingly Likely Ultimately
... nobody with whom I've spoken ... denies that the House is overwhelmingly likely ultimately to bestow amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms.
Consider why this is so (in my not-so-humble opinion):
1. In the absence of immunity, legal discovery is likely to show that telecoms were "following orders" for unwarranted wiretaps long before the current program. I suspect that Democrats are not willing to boil Bill Clinton in the same pot with George Bush.
2. Every politician is humbled by the threat (even if frivolous) that they will be held responsible for the next terrorist attack ("when, not if") by denying the administration every power imaginable ... allegedly to evade a forever threat. The Support-Me-Or-Die meme is getting old, but it still works as Support-Me-Or-Lose-Your-Seat.
3. Telecom officers, administrators, and employees are a huge constituency that profits from, and therefore nurtures, expanded political power, stimulating paid political discourse on their corporate resources. I'm sure many of them recognize the risks of expanded totalitarian discretion (some even refused the illegal wiretaps), but many see the huge profits derived from expanded government contracts, legal or not, as a good and very profitable enterprise.