I would suspect not much.
The fact of the matter is that most folks are not paying close attention now to an election that remains seven months away, and whatever political oxygen there is the room is being sucked up by the Obama/Clinton battle.
Which is how congressmen like Virgil Goode are able to get away with blatant, albeit clever, deceptions like this:
Goode News For the Fifth District of VirginiaFOR RELEASE: March 26, 2008
The national security of the United States is not something that should be a matter of political gamesmanship. However, one must question whether such is going on in the House of Representatives.
The issue is the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA). It was adopted in 1978 to provide judicial and congressional oversight of the U. S. Government's covert surveillance activities of foreign entities and individuals in the United States, while maintaining the secrecy needed to protect national security. FISA allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners by the United States for up to one year unless the "surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". If a United States person is involved, judicial authorization is required.
The FISA law of 1978 has worked well, but it could not have anticipated the rapid advances in technology that have taken place in the past 15 years, especially the advent of cell phones and the ability to make phone calls over the Internet. The administration has urged Congress to update the FISA law to include the ability to use warrantless wiretaps on cell phone calls that originate outside the United States. These calls can pass through the U. S. on the way to their ultimate destination. Since 9/11, American-based phone companies have cooperated with the U. S. government and provided information on the origination of suspected terrorist-related calls placed from outside our country. The administration has contended that because terrorists act at a moment's notice, it endangers our national security to wait 72 hours for a court review to learn the identity of the person placing the call from a foreign country.
Because, these warrantless wiretaps have been in progress for over six years, some civil liberties lawyers have sought to sue the phone companies for cooperating with the government in these wiretaps, even though no American citizen has been the target of a warrantless wiretap. The administration has asked Congress to include an exemption for the telecommunications companies in legislation renewing the FISA law. In February, the Senate agreed on a bi-partisan vote of 68-to-29. The House was expected to follow suit, so that the FISA law would not expire.
Instead, the House majority leadership let the law expire and then apparently bowed to pressure from the trial lawyers; a group that gives millions of dollars to Democratic candidates in election campaigns and refused to bring up the Senate-passed measure, which already has enough announced support in the House to win approval. As evidence of the importance of trial lawyers to the Democratic war chest, a columnist has provided figures showing that 66 trial lawyers who represent plaintiffs in suits against telecommunications companies have contributed $1.5 million to Democratic candidates and causes.
Instead, the House leadership forced through passage of a FISA "light" renewal bill that does not include immunity for the telecommunications companies that have cooperated with the government in tapping the calls placed from outside the U. S. I voted against this bill; there is no indication that the Senate will go along with it, and the President has said that he will veto it.
Meanwhile, our nation remains much less secure, and I believe that it is vital for Congress to act quickly to agree to a new FISA bill that will help to protect us from terrorists.
No, Virgil does not lie here, but he does not fairly state the issue either.
And my concern is not so much FISA reform itself, which though important has, for good or ill, transformed into something of an inside the Beltway issue.
But it is an example of something much more important at work -- the way our legislative representatives disrespect us as citizens.
The FISA reform issue is not about the security of the United States of America, as Virgil Goode would have you believe. In fact, virtually every congressperson and Senator, Republican and Democratic, has agreed on "modernizing" the provisions of FISA to account for new technologies. They could vote 100% for a law tomorrow.
The sole issue is immunity for telecom companies that knowingly broke the law at the request of the Bush Administration. The Bush Administration simply wants to block examination of its own actions by getting these cases thrown out of court before they can even get stared.
So, why does Virgil Goode seek to deceive the citizens of the Fifth District by asserting that this issue is about trial lawyers and campaign donation to Democrats?
The answer is clear.
Because trial lawyers are a reliable boogeyman for him to distract people's attention. When a magician pulls a rabbit out of his hat, he fools you by getting to look away at the moment he does it.
Oh, says Cong. Goode, I voted to violate civil liberties? I'm fighting trial lawyers. What? I voted to authorize torture? Trial lawyers? Hows that? I voted against ethics reform and accountability for bad behavior? Trial lawyers.
How does he get away with it?
Most people, quite understanably, go about their lives not thinking about issues like this, since they don't directly affect us. Within the confines of our discussions around our dinner tables, or at our watering holes or barber shops, our mainstream opinions, different though they might be, feel protected and free.
Meanwhile, we have our hands full buying food, getting the kids to school in the morning, cooking, keeping our houses clean, getting the homework done, and getting our kids to sleep at night.
One of the challenges of the Perriello campaign will be fighting through this fog of deception and these fires of resentment that Virgil Goode stokes in this district. The people of this District -- throughout this district -- are smarter than to be bamboozled time and again by these kinds of appeals.
So, what is the connection between FISA and bedtime?
Appeals like this insult the intelligence of voters in the Fifth District. Times are getting tough. Resentment of trial lawyers won't pay our rents and mortgages, bring investment into our district, generate jobs or improve education for our kids.
In fact, it drives all those good things away.
The fact of the matter is that Virgil Goode has been in Washington, DC too long. When he sends newsletters like this one back to us, he is just trying to keep his job by hoping we don't expect solutions to problems, but merely blame them on someone else.
Goode is treating us like we're a bunch of rubes who don't get it.
When Virgil Goode treats us like rubes, then others think we're rubes. Businessmen don't want to open businesses and bring jobs to places where our own Congressman thinks we're rubes. Do they?
Would you?
Virgil Goode's time to be an effective representative for the Fifth District is past. Contrary to the name of his newsletter, he is anything but good news for our district.
There are many answers for past failures; let's win one this time to have a good Representative, and a good story to tell to a new generation of Democrats.
Thanks for this.
But it is incorrect to say that there is either ignorance or intolerance in this part of Virginia, or at least, any more so than anywhere else.
My only disagreement is when you say, "No, Virgil does not lie here, ..."
'Lie' is a word that people seem reticent to use these days, and I agree we should be careful before always calling half-truths and mis-truths and mis-speakings, etc., lies. But when an article is THIS untrue, well, I think the evidence is that the writer is lying.
Goode says: "The FISA law of 1978 has worked well, but it could not have anticipated the rapid advances in technology that have taken place in the past 15 years, especially the advent of cell phones and the ability to make phone calls over the Internet. The administration has urged Congress to update the FISA law to include the ability to use warrantless wiretaps on cell phone calls that originate outside the United States." Entirely hogwash. FISA has been amended multiple times to account for the changing technological landscape. Moreover, everyone agrees that the technical ruling of the FISC placing limits on the ability to tap pure foreign-to-foreign communications that merely travel through US switches -- but it's the Republicans that refuse to allow that simple law to pass unless retroactive indemnification/amnesty and other changes that kneecap the 4th Amendment are included in the legislation.
Goode further writes, "...even though no American citizen has been the target of a warrantless wiretap." Unknowable -- in fact, almost certainly untrue, but unknowable.
"The House was expected to follow suit, so that the FISA law would not expire." FISA is still the law of the land, and has no expiration date. Clever rhetorical ploy.
And on and on. There's good indication that these NSA programs are in fact vacuuming up every single email and cell phone call and analyzing them -- and perhaps reading and listening. Pure American to American calls are also almost surely being listened in on without warrants.
The argument has to be: not only can you not trade liberty for security, giving up the protections of the 4th Amendment not only makes us less free, but almost assuredly also makes us less safe. You lose both. By forcing the government and the hard-working people at the NSA to respect the 4th Amendment, we ensure that they are going about intercepting communications from true bad actors in the most efficient way possible. By allowing the government to run amok, we almost guarantee instead that bad actors inside the system will use illegally obtained information from communications for overtly political dealings and perhaps for blackmail purposes.
I think you can also make a very strong argument that the linchpin of our liberties comes from the 4th Amendment and the right to Habeas Corpus. Any Congressman that is so dishonest and cavalier in dismissing the protections of the 4th Amendment is someone that needs to be vigorously combatted.