At the annual Netroots Nation progressive blogger confab this morning, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi responded to audience and email questions in a wide-ranging discussion on telecom immunity, corporate bail-outs, net neutrality and reproductive health. To extended applause, the speaker called out the U.S. Senate democrats — and namely Colorado’s Sen. Ken Salazar — for supporting the controversial recent amendment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, better known as FISA.
In a surprise appearance, Vice President Al Gore joined Speaker Pelosi on the stage when she began discussing energy policy — another crucial issue for Coloradans.
Salazar, who admitted that the FISA bill was flawed, was among 21 democrats who joined 47 Senate Republicans to amend the law which was first implemented in 1978 in response to domestic spying abuses by the Nixon Administration to damage their political enemies. Sen. Wayne Allard also voted in support of the bill which ultimately passed much to the consternation of civil liberties proponents on both sides of the aisle. Legal challenges to the new FISA law were filed within days of the Senate vote.
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