The good news is Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen [tag]Specter[/tag] (R-Pa.) is taking a firm stand and arguing that it’s incumbent upon the president and vice president to explain the circumstances surrounding their classified leaks. The bad news is it’s [tag]Arlen Specter[/tag], who has a history of talking tough at the beginning of a story — and then caving shortly thereafter.
“I think that there has to be a detailed explanation precisely as to what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him, and an explanation from the president as to what he said so that it can be evaluated,” Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) said. He was referring to last week’s revelation in a court document that Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, testified that Cheney told him Bush approved leaking parts of a classified document about intelligence estimates of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
Specter said on “Fox News Sunday” that he had heard yesterday morning about a report, first published by the Associated Press, that a lawyer close to the case said Bush “didn’t tell the vice president specifically what to do, but just said get it out.”
Specter added, “I do say that there’s been enough of a showing here with what’s been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people … about exactly what he did.”
I welcome the remarks, of course, and largely agree with the sentiment. The problem is that Specter is always willing to make comments like this, but he’s never willing to walk the walk. Specter had grave concerns about warrantless searches, before he backed down. He was going to give Samuel Alito the grilling of a lifetime, before he backed down. Specter was publicly uncomfortable with Karl Rove and James Dobson cooperating on judicial nominees, until he backed down.
Now Specter believes Bush “owes” us an explanation, which is great until Specter accepts hollow spin as a rationalization for dubious behavior.
As Harry Reid said last week, Specter is a “moderate Republican…whenever you don’t need him.”