Cheney Pulls The Strings

When a congressional attempt at oversight is thwarted, be sure Dick Cheney is behind it...

USA Today: Senators won't grill phone companies
Lawmakers, Cheney strike deal on NSA

A last-minute deal Tuesday with Vice President Cheney averted a possible confrontation between the Senate Judiciary Committee and U.S. telephone companies about the National Security Agency's database of customer calling records.

The deal was announced by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the committee chairman, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. They said Cheney, who plays a key role supervising NSA counterterrorism efforts, promised that the Bush administration would consider legislation proposed by Specter that would place a domestic surveillance program under scrutiny of a special federal court.

In return, Specter agreed to postpone indefinitely asking executives from the nation's telecommunication companies to testify about another program in which the NSA collects records of domestic calls...

...The deal prompted protests from Democratic lawmakers, who said the Republican-controlled Congress had refused to challenge the administration's expansion of presidential authority. “Why don't we just recess for the rest of the year, and the vice president will just tell the nation what laws we'll have?” said Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the committee....

Specter = tool; Leahy = man who understands the concept of checks and balances. Dick Cheney's likely to tell him to go fuck himself again. This move prompted one helluva rant from CNN's Jack Cafferty, who feels particularly betrayed after praising Specter last month under the assumption that he would use his committee for its required oversight duties. Here's what he had to say-

CAFFERTY: What an idiot I am. I actually thought at the time Senator Specter was going to exercise his responsibility to provide some congressional oversight of the executive branch, you know, see if the White House is playing by the rules. Silly me.

In the end, Senator Specter has turned out to be yet another gutless Republican worm cowering in the face of pressure from the administration and fellow Republicans. There are not going to be any hearings. Americans won't find out if their privacy is being illegally invaded.

You know what the Senate Judiciary Committee settled for instead? Senator Orrin Hatch said he has won assurances from Vice President Dick Cheney that the White House will review proposed changes to the law that would restrict certain aspects of the NSA program.

Dick Cheney is going to decide if it's OK to spy on American citizens without a warrant. And this worthless bunch senators has agreed to let him do it. It's a disgrace.

Crooks and Liars has video, if interested.

Meanwhile, ol' 'Maverick' Specter's pretending to be angry again. Right on schedule too.

USA Today had another story the other day which, not directly related to this one, does summarize how backwards the people running Congress are these days. The title of the article says that Congress is "pushing back against Bush's expansion of presidential authority", but that headline is very deceiving. Here's what they're pushing back against-

Republican and Democratic House leaders join forces to protest the FBI search of a congressman's office. The Senate Intelligence Committee demands fuller briefings from the CIA. The Supreme Court hears a landmark case challenging presidential war powers.

After five years of a concerted White House campaign, there are tentative signs that Congress and the courts are beginning to push back against what has been the greatest expansion of presidential powers in a generation or more...

Good news to some extent (hey, it's something), but it's noteworthy that caused this pushback was not any of the major revelations like domestic spying or secret prisons or signing statements, but the investigation of a criminally corrupt congressman. To recap, when it comes to our privacy and constitutional rights, Congress is happy to let the White House sell us out. But when it comes to their privacy and constitutional rights, boy howdy Congress is on the ball. The article does note some positive developments- measures demanding more thorough congressional oversight, the McCain torture ban - but those are symptoms... they fail to solve to solve anything unless they deal with the larger disease that is a President who believes he is above the law and the constitutional separation of powers. Until they do, Congress can pass all the laws and measures they want, but (as with the torture ban) the President will still feel free to disregard them at will.

On a related note, Greg Djerejian explains with examples Cheney's key role in unraveling the restrictions on torture and how this administration has refused to learn from any of its mistakes. Frightening.

[PS- With news like this of the Republicans laying down for the administration's abuses of power, the Democratic base is demanding that members of their party pick up the slack. A Knight-Ridder report on this states "The fault line is evident as Democrats gather for spring and summer sessions filled with demands for bolder action by the congressional wing of their party, especially if they win control of the House or Senate in November." These demands are stronger still in some states where Democratic delegates have proposed resolutions for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Of course, the Democratic leaders in Congress reaction to all this? Continue to sweep the base under the rug, lest they scare away swing voters or upset Tim Russert or something.]