Stuck in traffic on Sept. 11, smoke from the burning Pentagon wafting past, Royce C. Lamberth called the FBI to help get him to his office. As the top judge on the FISA court, Lamberth was in charge of approving government requests for NSA telephone surveillance. By the time the FBI arrived that day, he’d already approved five new wiretaps. “The courts can respond in times of national crisis, and I think the courts have to, and we did,” he explained.

National security agencies got everything they needed on Sept. 11, and on the critical days that followed.

It’s important to remember that fact this week, as Senate Republicans amp up the rhetoric in anticipation of their rekindled efforts to pass a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendment granting retroactive amnesty to telecommunication companies that violated federal law — by enabling spying on ordinary Americans’ phone calls — at the behest of the Bush administration.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto gave us an idea of the kind of hyperbole we can expect when he warned, “We’re exactly three weeks away from the date when terrorists can be free to make phone calls without fear of being surveilled by U.S. intelligence agencies.”

A terrific scare tactic, but dead wrong. No one thinks U.S. intelligence agencies should be denied surveillance capabilities.

The sole issue is whether outlaw telecommunications companies should be given a pass on their illegal behavior. And since President Bush has threatened to veto any FISA legislation without telco amnesty, it’s clear that he’s more concerned about Verizon’s checkbook than he is about our nation’s security.

Too bad Bush’s love is unrequited. Many FISA wiretaps were recently pulled by the supposedly heroic telcos because of the government’s failure to pay its phone bills.

A single uncontroversial technical correction, allowing unencumbered monitoring of foreign communications routed through the United States, is required to fine-tune FISA. Yet that simple fix has been hijacked by Republicans in an effort to protect their telco pals. As usual, the GOP hopes that its patented fear-mongering will browbeat timid Democrats into submission.

In reality, telecommunications companies already enjoy immunity when they act under well-established legal guidelines and procedure. The GOP’s proposed amendment to FISA has nothing to do with Sept. 11; the administration began its efforts to weaken FISA’s oversight protections well before then. The question at hand is simple: Should the telcos be rewarded for enabling illegal domestic spying?

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd (D) once again will lead efforts to strip Senate legislation of the telco amnesty, while Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appears ready once again to back the Bush administration and its Republican allies.

Thankfully, the two leading Democratic presidential candidates are siding with Dodd.

Asked for comment, the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) provided a statement from the senator: “I strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill. No one should get a free pass to violate the basic civil liberties of the American people — not the president of the United States, and not the telecommunications companies that fell in line with his warrantless surveillance program [… T]hat is why I am proud to stand with Sen. Dodd and a grassroots movement of Americans who are standing up for our civil liberties and the rule of law.”

Likewise, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) campaign reaffirmed to me the senator’s opposition to telco amnesty, and her support for a filibuster, if necessary.

In an election year in which Republicans are scrambling for an issue, screaming about national security is the only game they know. This time, Democrats should simply refuse to play.

Moulitsas is founder and publisher of Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com).