Specter: A sheep in wolf's clothing

Arlen Specter pretends to defend congressional oversight in regards to Bush's illegal domestic spying program, but all he really does is fold over for exactly what the Bush Administration wants. The fact of the matter is that the Specter deal (which wont pass Congress unchanged since nothing does), would make FISA totally obsolete and remove any requirements of oversight, why anyone would think this a reasonable "compromise" particularly with an administration that has blatantly broken the law, is beyond me.

Gonzales said the bill gives Bush the option of submitting the NSA program to the intelligence court, rather than requiring the review.

An administration official said Bush will submit to the review as long the bill is not changed in ways that he sees as undermining security. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations are internal, said the bill would preserve the right of future presidents to skip that court review.

Give me a break, we go from required review of each case of wiretapping to optional review of the whole program? That's suddenly an adequate check on the executive branch? Give me a break, if anything the actions of the Bush Administration have warranted more, stricter review, not less review that is optional anyway. We've got an Administration that has blatantly violated FISA, and now we're going to react by changing the law to let them do anything they want? Quite frankly the disclosure of the Domestic Spying program by the New York Times in December should have lead to impeachment hearings, instead they seem to be leading to a total Congressional cave in to let the President do anything he damn well pleases.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, said Bush could submit the program to the court right now, if he wished. He called the potential legislation "an interesting bargain."

"He's saying, if you do every single thing I tell you to do, I'll do what I should have done anyway," Leahy said.

This is disgusting, and because of this Specter should be forever remembered as a Bush Adminstration lapdog.