Useless Democrat watch:

Faced with requests from Dubya's administration which were plainly illegal, large telecom companies followed orders, letting themselves be consoled with transparently bogus legal rationales from his flunkies. Now Jay Rockefeller, Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, proposes to give them immunity because, as he says:

... private companies who received legal assurances from the highest levels of government should not be dragged through the courts for their help with national security.

Heavens! If they were, then future criminal administrations might not be able to make their own crimes legal by fiat... and what, then would be the future of the Republic?

To be fair to Rockefeller, he goes on:

The onus is on the administration, not the companies, to ensure that the request is on strong legal footing, and if it is not, it is the administration that should be held accountable.

For some reason, press reports of the statement omit the calls for immediate impeachment and prosecution which would be needed to make this even minimally credible, but I'll stop calling Rockefeller a spineless toady to Republican power just as soon as they come along...