Roll call vote results from the FISA bill amendment votes, specifically the Dodd-Feingold amendment stripping retroactive immunity for telecoms, are here.

Last night, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) said “This is our defining question, the question that confronts every generation: The rule of law, or the rule of men?”

Republicans unanimously voted for the rule of men. Every last one of them, except for Lindsay Graham, who wasn’t present. Democrats were split. Thirty Democratic Senators, plus Bernie Sanders (I-VT), voted for the rule of law. Seventeen Democrats, plus Joe Lieberman (I-CT) voted with the Republicans. Hillary Clinton was not present. Got that? Once again, Republicans voted unanimously to support their party’s principles. Democrats split, with almost 40% abandoning our party’s principles.

This was not one of those issues about which it can be said that reasonable people can reasonably disagree. This vote gets down to core big D and little d Democratic principles and values. If we can’t have a party line that says the rule of law is a bedrock principle of governing, never to be violated; if we can’t expect our most powerful representatives to profess and uphold this most basic principle, then what exactly is it that we’re asking the American people to trust us to do when we ask for their votes?