Specter hangs up on NSA oversight

June 7, 2006

In May, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman [tag]Arlen Specter[/tag] (R-Pa.) talked tough in response to revelations about Bush’s legally dubious [tag]surveillance[/tag] efforts. At one point, Specter even complained publicly, “[T]here really has to be in our system of law and government, checks and balance, separation of powers, congressional oversight and…there has been no meaningful congressional oversight on these [surveillance] programs.”

Of course, Specter has a track record of not exactly walking the walk when it comes to follow through on administrative oversight. A few weeks ago, Specter cut a weak deal with conservatives on the committee on legislation on NSA surveillance, and yesterday, the other shoe dropped.

After weeks of anticipation, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter deferred a decision about whether to force executives from three telecom companies to testify about their involvement in the National Security Agency’s terrorist-surveillance program. His decision came as a total surprise to Democrats on the committee, leading Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin to suggest Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, had succumbed to a “June swoon.”

According to those in attendance, Specter said he’d been “advised informally” that the phone companies they planned to subpoena — BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T, would be precluded from providing any information about the secret program by the government. Thus, a vote was therefore postponed on the matter, Senate staffers said.

Instead, Specter said Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah had extracted a promise from Vice President [tag]Cheney[/tag] himself to work with the Senate on proposed legislation related to the [tag]NSA[/tag] and its oversight.

How utterly predictable. Instead of meaningful oversight, Hatch has invited Dick Cheney to “help” the Senate Judiciary Committee determine how it can exercise its oversight responsibilities.

I’m sure the Vice President will be forthcoming and ensure the NSA’s activities are open to scrutiny, right?

How come anyone still pays attention when this shill talks tough? Ever since his re-election, Specter has been doing this all-talk-no-action game. Is the media ever going to tire of it?

  • There was a great quote from Leahy in response someone posted (at DailyKos I think), along the lines of “Well, why don’t we shut down Congress and let Cheney just decide what the laws are?”

  • When it comes to Arlen Specter, nothing he might ever do could possibly inspire me to utter the words, “I was disappointed by the Senator’s apparent change of heart.”

  • I’m glad to see that Arlen appears to have won his personal battle with cancer, however, the national cancer of executive power overreach is a battle he is far too willing to succumb to. Too bad for him and too bad for our nation.

    The job of Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee really requires someone with the balls the size of Steven Colbert’s.

  • “Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah had extracted a promise from Vice President Cheney himself to work with the Senate on proposed legislation related to the NSA and its oversight.”

    Hatch: “Pretty, pretty pleeeeease?”

    Cheney: “We’ll see”

  • Specter, what a waste of oncological training he as turned out to be.

    Imagine the talented artist or noble humanitarian who probably died while the doctors were spending their time on Arlen.

  • Tom Cleaver reminded us recently of the high school wrestling coach who was so full of himself that he didn’t realize everyone in school was laughing at him. I sense that Arlen Spector has a lot in common with that deluded coach.

  • The NSA spying programs can not be made to be constitutional because they are…

    … pay attention now …

    … ineffectual.

    The programs produce so LITTLE real evidence of crime that they don’t qualify as meeting a ‘reasonable’ standard. And thus they can not be made under a warrant, and thus they are not constitutional. Less than a ONE PERCENT SUCCESS RATE doesn’t cut it.

  • Lance – they’re not ineffectual with respect to Bush’s purposes. They are gathering this info, not for national security reasons, but to gather data that can be used in the mid-term elections and in the 2008 elections. By tracking who calls whom (e.g., did you call the DNC? MoveOn.org? the Kerry campaign? Greenpeace?) they can figure out what tactics to use in the elections to stifle the votes.

  • More bad news on holding Cheney et al accountable for warrantless domestic spying.

    District Court Judge Vaughn Walker delivered what may be the death blow to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against AT&T today, ruling that he will look at the government’s secret evidence supporting its motion to dismiss the anti-secret surveillance lawsuit since it might disclose national security secrets.

    The EFF had argued that the judge could order AT&T to stop its alleged complicity in warrantless government surveillance based solely on government admissions and the sealed, but unclassified, evidence provided by AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein.

  • Homer,
    the more I think about it, “Go f**k yourself” would be more accurate

  • I try to only read funny things…and tonights news is really funny! And you guys and gals ( althought by the names I didn’t think there were any gals) add really funny comments. Can we get rid of these bums in November? God, I hope so…. By that I mean I really hope so since I haven’t actually believed in any god for many a year….

    Keep up the good work…CB and all the rest of you!

  • Snarlin’ Arlen has sent a letter to Deadeye Dick complaining about Deadeye’s manipulation of the Judiciary Committee Republicans on the oversight issue. I for one will not get my hopes up that old Snarlin’ will put in his dentures and take a bite out of Deadeye’s power grab.

  • Old Snarlin’ is well on the way to forgetting exactly where it was the last saw his dentures after Deadeye told him there’s nothing to be bothered about.

    [Cheney] said in a letter to Specter that he acted when the administration became concerned about a “compulsory process to force testimony” in a matter that could involve classified information.

    However, he said, his contacts with senators were “not unusual” and that in his role as vice president, “I have frequent contact with senators, both at their initiative and mine.” He added, “The respectful and candid exchange of views is something to be encouraged rather than avoided.”

    Cheney later had a phone conversation with Specter about the subpoena dispute, according to a U.S. official who did not provide details.

    Specter said he was encouraged by Cheney’s prompt written response although the vice president’s letter did not appear to directly address the senator’s accusation.

    “I am not looking for an apology. I am looking for protection of civil rights and recognition of congressional oversight,” Specter said. “I am looking for a substantive result and I think we may be on the way.”

    Let me translate to portions that I’ve highlighted. That “compulsory process to compel testimony” is typically called a subpoena. The Senate is supposed to have that power. I guess Deadeye doesn’t think it should.

    His contacts with senators were “not unusual” means that he has been going behind the backs of Republican committee chairs for going on six years now. Yea, nothin’ unusual here.

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