Blue Spot

Washington Wire - WSJ.com : Obama, Clinton Split on FISA Vote So much for unity? New York Sen. Hillary Clinton split with former rival Sen. Barack Obama today, voting against a controversial surveillance measure the expected Democratic nominee supported.

Obama has taken considerable flack from liberal activists since announcing a couple weeks ago that he would support the measure, which expands government surveillance powers in the United States.

Obama said he would work to eliminate a provision to grant conditional immunity to phone companies alleged to have participated in the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program, but amendments attempting to pare back or strip immunity from the surveillance bill were defeated Wednesday, as expected.

Obama won the nomination, in part, by running to Clinton’s left, but he has been tacking right since clinching the nomination in early June–which today landed him to Clinton’s right on the spy bill, which overhauled the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Obama’s own campaign Web site has become a hotbed of debate over his support for the compromise bill, spawning four groups in which opponents of Obama’s position vastly outnumber supporters—22,957 to 38. The “Get FISA Right” group blog on MyBarackObama.com was flooded with disappointed supporters after Wednesday’s vote, with more than 60 writing in within 90 minutes of the vote.

Labels: Domestic spying, FISA, Hillary, Obama, Obama critics, Surveilance