The "John Doe" amendment protecting citizens who report suspicious activity from civil lawsuits may not yet be dead--due, in part, to bloggy criticism of the attempt to block it. Or so the Washington Times reports (H/T Malkin):

"Democrats have been backed into a corner by public outrage over their efforts, so we are seeing these Democrats publicly say they support it in principle, but behind the scenes they are working to kill it," said one Republican leadership aide close to the conference process.

There are powerful Democrats in the House and Senate trying to kill this provision, the aide said.

Keeping the pressure on to include the provision are Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Independent and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the committee's ranking member, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine whose efforts last week fell three votes short of passing the provision to an education bill, and Rep. Pete King, New York Republican and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee and an author of the provision.

Some Republican aides are attributing the mounting pressure to support the provision to press reports and the blogosphere, where bloggers turned bloggyists are posting phone numbers of Democrat congressional leaders and urging readers to call in with their support.

One wonders who some of these "powerful Democrats" are...It seems as though Rep. Bernie Thompson opposes the measure because he fears it will lead to "racial profiling," but who else could be opposing it behind the scenes?