White House Tries To Kill Spying Probe

Does Congress still care about check or balances? Or even their own relevancy? We'll see...

Washington Post: Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt-
White House Sways Some GOP Lawmakers

Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program last week, but an all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed the effort and may kill it, key Republican and Democratic sources said yesterday.

The Senate intelligence committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a Democratic-sponsored motion to start an inquiry into the recently revealed program in which the National Security Agency eavesdrops on an undisclosed number of phone calls and e-mails involving U.S. residents without obtaining warrants from a secret court. Two committee Democrats said the panel -- made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats -- was clearly leaning in favor of the motion last week but now is closely divided and possibly inclined against it...

For weeks we've seen Republican senators very concerned with the President's action and demanding inquiries.

Why the change now? Well-

They attributed the shift to last week's closed briefings given by top administration officials to the full House and Senate intelligence committees, and to private appeals to wavering GOP senators by officials, including Vice President Cheney...

...Sources close to Rockefeller say he is frustrated by what he sees as heavy-handed White House efforts to dissuade Republicans from supporting his measure. They noted that Cheney conducted a Republicans-only meeting on intelligence matters in the Capitol yesterday.

You read that right. Yesterday, Vice President Cheney was still hiding from the press after nearly killing a 78 year old man, but took the time to strongarm Republican senators into backing off the spying probe. That's classic Cheney.

I weep for our poor little democracy.