Was there a FISA deal?

Via TPMMuckraker comes this nugget about George W. Bush's posturing on the FISA bill. Problem is, Bush still has quite the accuracy problem when it comes to public statements. Earlier today Bush appeared at FBI headquarters to posture and claim that Democrats haven't produced an acceptable bill.

There's only one problem with Bush's statement: it isn't true.

A key Democrat in the negotiations, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), says that a deal had in fact been reached with McConnell, who has been busy lobbying Congress on a FISA update all week. "We had an agreement with DNI McConnell," Hoyer spokeswoman Stacey Bernards tells TPMmuckraker, "and then the White House quashed the agreement."

A bill that House Democrats put forward today does not require the National Security Agency to seek warrants for surveillance of persons inside the United States -- only that the Attorney General will issue "guidelines" as to how collecting the communications of U.S. persons should operate.

Sigh. The George W. Bush administration: bitter, deceitful and untrustworthy to the very end.

I'm sure members of Congress wish to depart for recess, but most Americans aren't going to shed a lot of tears for them if they don't. Why Bush is behaving this way is unclear to me. Maybe like every other Republican in the country he's being boorish because it's finally dawned on him just how unpopular the GOP has become.

I'm watching C-SPAN right now and Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio has created bedlam in the body by attempting to introduce a resolution condemning John Murtha for something or other. It's crazy.