The Wall Street Journal continues to call for passage of FISA renewal legislation, claiming that liberals in the House have alienated moderates and exposed themselves as soft on national security.  They have risked our national security as part of a political payoff to the trial lawyers.  That is one payoff with too high a price.

Ms. Pelosi's reply was to force the signatories to take a vote that repudiates their earlier position. The nearby table names the 14 Members who signed that letter but voted for the Pelosi bill. One of the signers, Tennessee's Lincoln Davis, was so nonplused he could only bring himself to vote "present."

Mr. Bush has promised to veto the bill, which is actively hostile to the intelligence gathering necessary to fight terrorists in the 21st century. In addition to leaving phone carriers exposed to billion-dollar lawsuits, the legislation strips away the "state secrets" privilege for any entity that cooperated with the U.S. intelligence community. What this does, essentially, is ensure that the dozens of suits already pending against carriers would, at the very least, reach the merit phase of litigation and possibly drag on for years. Such legal exposure makes it that much more difficult to gain private cooperation in national security emergencies going forward.

Another provision would create a new 9/11-style commission to investigate antiterror surveillance. Congressional committees already exist to perform this oversight, but no matter. The first 9/11 commission blamed everyone for not doing enough to fight terror. This commission would have as its main goal blaming the Bush Administration for trying to do too much.

By requiring prior court approval to gather foreign intelligence from foreign targets on foreign soil, the House measure would also further involve unelected judges in warfighting decisions. By the way, since when do foreign targets have a right to any court review under the U.S. Constitution? It tells you something about today's Democrats that when a previous Democratic Congress passed FISA 30 years ago, it omitted any such "probable cause" and "significant purpose" tests for foreigners overseas.

This exercise shows that the Democratic left that runs the House is a danger to American security. Senate Democrats would be doing their party a favor by killing this bill before voters figure out they really believe this stuff.

Liberals in the House ensured they were covered from political fallout should an attack occur while they are on vacation, but they failed to ensure every tool was available to stop such an attack from happening in the first place.