Last Thursday progressive supporters of Barack Obama who disagree with his position on legislation before Congress to modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) started a group on MyBarackObama.com urging the candidate to "Get FISA Right." According to DailyKos, the group is now the fastest growing and fourth largest group on the website.
At issue is Obama's support of legislation that gives retroactive immunity to those telecommunication companies that helped the Bush administration eavesdrop on Americans in violation of FISA. Many Democratic lawmakers have tried to portray this bill as a "compromise" between Democrats and Republicans. The reality, argued convincingly in this article by The American Prospect's Julian Sanchez, is that the bill amounts to a full endorsement of Bush's warrantless wiretapping program and strips telecom companies of all accountability for their role in carrying out that policy.
Obama has stated publicly that he would prefer not to grant immunity, but he thinks the wiretapping program is essential to national security. The "Get FISA Right" group wants to pressure him to rethink those priorities.
Over the course of the presidential campaign, there's been a lot of talk about how the Obama campaign has created a dynamic online community where tens of thousands of supporters can interact on a daily basis. Regardless of where you stand on this particular issue, the "Get FISA Right" represents a fascinating new development -- a forum on Obama's website where large numbers of supporters are openly disagreeing with him on a specific policy.
And it's growing like wildfire. Membership stood around 7,000 when I came into work this morning. It's now at 8,387.
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