[UPDATE: Rep. Fossella's formidable fundraising factory showed prowess with more $300,000 raised in the just ended quarter -- with $250,000 cash on hand reports Liz Benjamin (Previous claims for Recchia were $220,000 and for Harrison $110,000.). Those keeping up with the race in the 13th Congressional District may also want to read the Sunday’s Strictly Political column by Tom Wrobleski in the Staten Island advance.]

I sometimes wonder if I have become a Yellow Dog Democrat – you know the sort who would vote for a yellow dog if it were the Democratic candidate. And then I remember Susan Molinari who represented Staten Island in the NYC Council and in Congress with wit, intelligence and care. I thought she was very good. I liked as well her Council successor and Finance Commissioner Alfred Cerullo. I have not admired the work of Congress Member Fossella. Let me give you an example of his work which in my view is bad not just because I disagree with his views (which I do) but because his views are couched in misstatements of fact and law.

Mr. Fossella’s essay appeared as a column in the NY Post by GOP Rep.Vito Fossella on a crucial issue pending before Congress; the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. (FISA) Congress Member Fossella also read this piece as the Republican radio address of the week and you can access from his website here .

[For a fair, left-partisan, discussion of the FISA issues, try Dahlia Lithwick's essay in Slate or try mcjoan's post at Kos . For the ACLU's view go here]. The Senate may vote on FISA Feb 4th or 5th. Consider calling your Senator .

As I read it, however, it misstates the facts and law about FISA and it repeats a part-fact part-fiction story which has been discredited. If this is the level of debate that Mr. Fossella is going to advance, the only question left is whether anyone will stay fooled by him .

Personally, I have my own views of Mr. Bush’s FISA plan to eavesdrop without warrants. I think it’s wrong, an unneeded invasion of our privacy and unconstitutional. However, Mr. Fossella’s defense of Mr. Bush – I am sad to say – does not rise to a difference of opinion. It’s true Mr. Fossella thinks we should give up our liberty and our privacy. It’s true that I think we shouldn’t.

Rep. Fossella says: “I treasure our civil liberties, but I also value the lives of the American people - and the terrorists' war against us sometimes requires gathering intelligence quickly to stop a new attack from occurring.
For instance, when seven US solders were kidnapped by al Qaeda gunmen in Iraq in May 2007, the intelligence community was ready to spring into action to begin surveillance in hopes of finding them . . . until lawyers in Washington stopped them cold.”

This story has several bizarre parts:

1) FISA governs surveillance in the US of foreign intelligence agencies. Mr. Fossella’s story is about surveillance in Iraq where FISA warrants are not required.
2) Battlefield intelligence, phone tapping and the rest has never been governed by FISA.
3) The telephone systems in Iraq are essentially under the control of US military authorities who tap them all the time.
4) Mr. Fossella’s “lawyers in Washington” are very those torture-loving, telephone-tapping Bush-colleagues who approve of every breach of our civil liberties and privacy. Mr. Fossella’s story has Mr. Bush’s lawyers barring warrantless surveillance. Will this play in Tottenville? Not any more.
5) In the US, when emergencies require warrantless surveillance, FISA authorizes after-the-tap warrant applications. No delay ever need occur.

Even in trivial details, Mr. Fossella cannot be bothered to get his facts right. One of those killed, he reports was “Spec. Alex Jiminez of Queens.” Mr. Jimenez, who I am sorry to say was kidnapped and killed, was from Lawrence, Massachusetts. It’s his mother who now resides in Queens.

Now all this only shows that Mr. Fossella mindlessly repeats what he’s told by right-wing media outlets. I cannot believe that Susan Molinari would ever have allowed herself to be the parrot that Mr. Fossella appears to have become.

Links:

For a collection of local, Lawrence coverage about Mr. Jimenez, click here .
For a story about how Mr. Jimenez’s wife was threatened with deportation click here .
For a HuffPost rebuttal of the right’s misuse of this story, try here
Wired’s rebuttal is here
An Air American rebuttal is here