While the eyes of the nation and the press were focued on the Super Duper primaries Tuesday, President Bush threatened to veto any surveillance bill that did not include retroactive legal immunity for the telecom giants in an attempt to derail United State Senate plans to leave the phone and Internet service providers out of the dispute about the Bush administration’s domestic spying operation aimed at U.S. citizens and residents.

The warning, issued through a letter from Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, was aimed at legislative amendments to bar retroactive immunity to phone and Internet companies such as AT and T and Verizen that have given the government access to e-mails and phone calls linked to people in this country, not just abroad.

Without the retroactive protections, the letter claims, the company’s might be less willing to help the government track down alleged terror suspects in the future as they were asked to do in the days following the 2001 attacks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seemed puzzled by the administration’s position, since the law is set to expire in a few days.

“I’m not sure why the Administration feels the need to issue a veto threat on the foreign surveillance bill when Senate Republicans will not even let it come to the floor for debate,” Reid said in a statement. “This veto threat is part of a White House strategy to jam the bill through Congress with procedural maneuvers and political gamesmanship. We call on Republicans to allow the legislative process to work so that the Senate can pass a strong bipartisan bill.

“Democrats remain committed to giving our intelligence professionals the tools they need while protecting the privacy of law abiding Americans,” he said. “Unfortunately, Republicans seem more interesting in scoring political points than crafting bipartisan solutions that make America more secure.”

© 2008, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved.