U.S. Senate: Two Who Can't, Won't, or Know How to Lead

  

Reaction to NSA Extension Vote and NSA Hater 
(Sen. Mitch efforts down in flames and Sen. Rand merely in flames)

Major Update: WASHINGTON — In a remarkable turnaround, Senate Republicans have agreed to debate a House bill that would overhaul the National Security Agency's handling of Americans' calling records (see below reference) that at the same time would help preserve other domestic surveillance provisions. 

Previous Post: In the U.S. Senate today: Rand Paul wants the entire NSA program and similar ones scrapped even though the Senate has a positive common sense rational program right before them from the House (see post entry below), yet Paul keeps saying “No...”  This is why I hate the Senate rules:

1.  GOP Senate Majority “Leader” Mitch McConnell, in an about-face, reluctantly embraced the House-passed bill that would extend the anti-terror provisions that expire Sunday at midnight, while also remaking the bulk phone collections program.

2.  Although the lapse in the programs may be brief, intelligence officials warned that it could jeopardize Americans' safety and amount to a win for terrorists.

3.  The Senate voted today 77-17 to move ahead on the House-passed bill (see below) called “the USA Freedom Act,” which only last weekend fell three shorts vote of the 60 needed to advance in the Senate.  

For McConnell, it was a remarkable retreat after objecting ferociously that the House bill would make the bulk phone collections program unwieldy by requiring the government to search records maintained by phone companies.

Background noted from above reference: On May 13, 2015, the House passed the new the new “Freedom Act but it was hung up in the Senate with a lot of fear tactics in play. McConnell and a few others wanted a “clean extension of the bill specifically Section 215 until 2020 and in its present form.”

Opposition and fear were strong on all sides…  So, where are we now? We are about to find out ... and lest we forget how the GOP promised before the 2014 vote: "Give us Congress and we'll show you how to govern." 

Related from my earlier post here:

Alrighty then.