Bad Deal

Senator Specter has a habit of making a lot of noise about some of the more egregious Bush administration power grabs, and then going silent and doing nothing as soon as the White House talks back. Yesterday was no exception. After Cheney told Specter that he wouldn't get any cooperation from any witnesses he wanted to subpoena to investigate the legality of NSA surveillance operations, Specter caved.

Phone company executives won't be grilled by a Senate panel anytime soon about their roles in the Bush administration's eavesdropping program.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Tuesday he will hold off subpoenaing the telecommunications chiefs while he works with the White House on his legislation that would ask a secretive federal court to review the constitutionality of Bush's surveillance operations.

In return for giving up any pretense of public oversight or accountability, Specter got Cheney to promise to support his legislation that would have a secret court to do some kind of legal review. Even if that "review" were to mean anything substantively, given the way things have been going, I doubt it will even happen — and Specter and Cheney know that, too.

So thanks for the grandstanding, Senator Specter — you gave a power-mad White House everything it asked for and made it look like a compromise.

Getting the gist, Senator Leahy made a "modest proposal":

"Why don't we just recess for the rest of the year?" the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont, asked sarcastically. "Vice President Cheney will just tell the nation what laws we'll have."

Indeed he will, as he has always done, thanks to senators like Specter.