That’s a strong op-ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer from McConnell Kathryn linked to below, explaining clearly why it’s urgent that Nancy Pelosi let the House vote on a version of the bipartisan Senate intelligence reform bill. He writes that without the legal authority needed:

If a Marine in Iraq captures a terrorist from a previously unidentified terror group, our agents will not be free to call the phone numbers in this terrorist’s laptop right away. If a call is placed to one of the numbers in this terrorist’s laptop and routed through U.S. phone lines, our agents will have to apply for a warrant, even though the people on the other end of the phone are half a world away, the terrorist with the laptop is not an American, and all this takes place in a theater of war.

Me: Are we supposed to pretend that this, too, is supporting our troops? And why would Pelosi be doing this? I don’t claim to know her motives but McConnell points out:

[B]ecause the law as written does not protect phone companies from lawsuits for helping the government trace terrorist calls, those companies now face crushing lawsuits. Such litigation may be good for trial lawyers, but it jeopardizes the financial future of the phone companies – who are only trying to aid the war effort in good faith.

Who donates more to Pelosi’s party then trial lawyers? Yet when I chided a well-known investigative reporter last week for saying nothing about that in his story (even as he cast doubt on who or what might be influencing my views on this issue) he said he saw “no evidence of a link.”

Worth reading the senator’s full piece.