Congress prepares to pass King George his scepter

From the WaPo:

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...Lawmakers cite senators such as Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) to illustrate the administration's success in cooling congressional zeal for an investigation. On Dec. 20, she was among two Republicans and two Democrats who signed a letter expressing "our profound concern about recent revelations that the United States Government may have engaged in domestic electronic surveillance without appropriate legal authority." The letter urged the Senate's intelligence and judiciary committees to "jointly undertake an inquiry into the facts and law surrounding these allegations."

In an interview yesterday, Snowe said, "I'm not sure it's going to be essential or necessary" to conduct an inquiry "if we can address the legislative standpoint" that would provide oversight of the surveillance program. "We're learning a lot and we're going to learn more," she said.

From "profound concern," to doubting whether or not an inquiry is even needed. I wonder what she learned "a lot" of, that got her to the point where simply asking the questions is an unnecessary exercise? Surely, the fact that Karl Rove is making the rounds, giving "peptalks" to the Senators, reminding them of the consequences to their positions wouldn't have anything to do with it. And the fact that Snowe's running a re-election campaign for 2006 must also be one of those remarkable coincidences.

It has to be rough, setting out on the campaign trail without a spine.

At least Snowe gives lipservice to oversight. Her mewling attempt to hide her pathetically transparent reversal still puts her several steps above her fellow re-election seeker, Mike DeWine (R-OH). He stopped fellating the administration only long enough to write it a blank check:

He said he is drafting legislation that would "specifically authorize this program" by excluding it from the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which established a secret court to consider government requests for wiretap warrants in anti-terrorist investigations.

The administration would be required to brief regularly a small, bipartisan panel drawn from the House and Senate intelligence committees, DeWine said, and the surveillance program would require congressional reauthorization after five years to remain in place.

Spoken like a loyal Bushista. Nothing like "authorizing" something by codifying your decision to ignore the law. Only in El Presidente's "America" could a "we talk, you listen," briefing and an accountability moment that doesn't even occur every presidential term be called "oversight" with a straight face.