Now that the Senate is looking like it's going to provide blanket, retroactive immunity to all the telephone companies who broke the law at Bush's request, Senator Feingold looks at the situation in the Senate and despairs:

This morning, the Senate starts debating legislation to expand the government's surveillance powers.
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We have a big fight on our hands, and unfortunately, the deck is now stacked against us. Instead of being able to defend improvements that were made in the Judiciary Committee, we are going to have to start all over again to try to salvage the good work that was done to improve the bill. This includes adding tougher court oversight and greater protection for the privacy of innocent Americans, and by stripping out the retroactive immunity provision.
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We will be pointing out that under current law, companies already get immunity for cooperating with government requests for information -- as long as the requests follow requirements that are clearly laid out in the law. If companies didn't follow this law, and cooperated with illegitimate requests for sensitive information, then we should not hand them a "get out of jail free" card after the fact.
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It's now up to the Senate to stand up for the rule of law and against the misinformation and fear tactics that the administration always rolls out on the surveillance issue. That means Democrats will have to finally stand up to the administration on national security issues.

(my bold)

In the words of the immortal Gandolf the White: There was never much hope, only a fool's hope.