Senate Judiciary Committee Parties Like It's 1984- Approves Warrantless Wiretapping

News of a Republican party crackup, or a distancing from Bush, has been exaggerated. Ohh sure, they'll quibble over the semantics for the cameras and swing voters, but when the President Bush needs to push his terror Big Brother legislation, they're his dutiful rubberstamp as always.

Today's abdication of their constitutional duties occurred on Arlen Specter's Senate Judiciary Committee, as the warrantless wiretapping bill he engineered with the White House got one step closer to becoming law-

A bill backed by President George W. Bush to enable a court review of his domestic spying program won the approval on Wednesday of a U.S. Senate panel under election-year pressure to safeguard civil liberties.

Bush's Republicans hailed the measure and brushed off Democratic complaints that it could actually further undermine the rights of law-abiding Americans because of what they called loopholes that would expand presidential powers...

...Specter's bill would permit but not mandate a FISA court review. Critics charge it would also expand Bush's powers to eavesdrop. They said the FISA court would review the entire program at once rather than individual wiretaps, which could continue without warrants.

"This bill is all about authorizing the president to invade homes, e-mails and telephone conversations of American citizens in ways that are expressly forbidden by law," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee....

Bold added by me. Another recap: Specter's bill (responding with faux-concern to a program known to have targeted innocent Americans with no proveable success), would actually solidify the White House's claim to unlimited power on the wiretap issue by having a court give a one-time permanent rubberstamp to the program, a move not mandatory as the President would have the option of submitting the program for review, also expand the time required before getting a warrant (the ones the President refused to get anyway, and still won't have to get, starting this whole thing), would grant a retroactive amnesty for all violations of wiretapping law, and would make it more difficult for courts and Congress to challenge future Presidents on the issue.

It rewards the President for breaking the law by legally validating his actions.

This is after numerous courts have either slammed the program's constitutionality or just questioned in general the administration's arguments for denying the program sufficient oversight. Such oversight will be harder to obtain if this legislation is approved by the full Congress.

Glenn Greenwald analyzes the politicial particulars of what was voted on yesterday.

How this went from a major scandal with impeachment implications to an afterthought I will never know. This is such a fundamentally important issue for democracy and the White House has made it a political football. And the media and the Democrats let them. Shame on them all.

Meanwhile, Specter continues pretending his White House-sponsored bill's goal is oversight-

"My search has been to find a way to have a judicial review," said Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican senator who drafted the bill with the White House. "If someone has a better idea, I'm open to it."

Uhhh, how about growing a spine, Arlen?

A related issue, taking longer to nail down, is the President's proposed legislation on torture and tribunals for terror suspects at Gitmo. Republican Sens. Warner, McCain, and Graham continue to quibble with the White House over Bush's demands. McCain said that if the United States redefines abuses under the Geneva treaty, "then every nation in the world will amend Common Article 3 to their satisfaction. Then the next time a special forces soldier is captured out of uniform, then that government will have their own interpretation." Will they stand their ground or do the big fold like Specter? Stay tuned!

So concerned is the President, he's personally going to Capitol Hill to strongarm more GOP support.

UPDATE: Now even Colin Powell has voiced opposition to Bush's legislation. And the Democrats stay silent why?

[Related reading:
-Salon.com: On spying, GOP senators "work together" -- with the White House
-Glenn Greenwald: Libertarians, Conservatives and Warrantless Eavesdropping
-Digby Low-Tech Sophisticates]