On The Media Seeks Senator Who Killed Whistleblower Bill

from the seek-and-you-shall-find? dept

Wed, Jan 12th 2011 6:38am — Mike Masnick

At the beginning of the year, we wondered if a "whistleblower" might reveal the anonymous Senator who killed the whistleblower protection bill that was making its way through Congress (and had already been approved by the Senate earlier). Now, to be clear, there were many complaints about the bill, and some people claimed it was worse than what came before. However, it did seem somewhat ironic that a Senator would choose to use an anonymous hold on a bill about whistleblowing. The folks at WNYC's On The Media program are attempting to find out which Senator put the hold on by having volunteers ask their Senators and report back. As of this writing, there are a bunch of "No" answers, but still a lot of blanks.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: senators, whistleblower

8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

bwp (profile), 12 Jan 2011 @ 7:25am

I don't understand...
.. how a US Senator could or even should be allowed to do anything anonymously if it involves a vote or any other official action.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
hmm, 12 Jan 2011 @ 7:32am

because
He holds a copyright on anonymous ironic decisions and finding out who he is would be infringement?

It'd be funny if it wasn't actually within the bounds of possibility....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TheStupidOne, 12 Jan 2011 @ 7:56am

Re: I don't understand...
It's easy. Congress makes the rules for congress to follow. Congressmen (and women) have one real job, stay in power as long as possible. Hiding things from the people that elected them can sometimes help them get re-elected. Congress makes the rules to let them stay in power the longest, so Senators can be anonymous asses because they say they can be.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
lrn2postnubs, 12 Jan 2011 @ 7:57am

Obviously if they killed it anonymously, they aren't going to answer a constituent email that they were the ones that did it. And unless the word comes straight from that particular senator's mouth, no one in his office or any dept. they belong to (aka DHS) are going to know they did it either. My guess would be Lieberman but given all his bravado and bluster of late, it would be highly amusing if he hid behind anonymity to kill this.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2011 @ 8:03am

Re: Re: I don't understand...
Bingo - Senators are self-serving assholes.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2011 @ 8:20am

normally, the ones that shout the loudest, have the most to hide and the most to lose. this could be why those such as Lieberman and the like are being as vociferous as they are (eg, against Wikileaks). in this case, admitting to wanting to stop whistle blowing could lead to being voted out of a job. hence staying anonymous. does prove one thing. shouldn't be in the job in the first place as is not defending freedom of speech etc, not concerned about those he represents and got no guts!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
harbingerofdoom (profile), 12 Jan 2011 @ 8:22am

this type of hold doesnt make it permanently gone. its pretty much the same thing as a filibuster since a hold can be pretty much overridden by cloture. you just have to have enough people who want the bill to pass and it does add on a bunch of time.

besides i think there is something about after a week whoever used the hold has to be entered into the senate records or give up that hold (but someone else could try to hold it the same way the next time and then you are just playing pea in the shell games trying to find out whos doing it).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
jennaVera, 3 Feb 2011 @ 1:15pm

Are you sure it wasn't voinovich?
Ohioans had a long serving, very powerful Republican senator in office at that time. He left office on 3 January 2011. I assume for several reasons that once a public servant of high stature leaves office, that person is not held accountable for what he or she did in office. How can we find out whether Senator Voinovich put the anonymous hold on the legislation?
[ link to this | view in thread ]