There seems to be some debate about whether Clinton's laudable vote against the FISA bill was politically motivated or not. Obviously this is unknowable, but I suspect that she would have voted differently had she won the nomination. Josh Patashnik, however, makes the more important point: it doesn't matter. Trying to figure out whether Clinton's FISA vote was sincere or not is as irrelevant as figuring out what John McCain really thinks about abortion rights. Responding strategically within a given environment is what politicians do. And if Clinton responds to the fact that her political power base will be in the Senate rather than the White House by leading the fight to stop the growth of executive power, great. It's not as if there aren't plenty of member of Congress who have decided not to contest assertions of executive power.
--Scott Lemieux