Cafferty: Arlen Specter: a gutless Republican worm

CAFFERTY: We better all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because he might be all that is standing between us and a full-blown dictatorship in this country.

He's vowed to question these phone company executives about volunteering to provide the government with my telephone records and yours and tens of millions of other Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

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.

Here's the question: Should the phone companies be forced to testify about cooperating in a secret NSA spying program?

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/06/07.html#a8619

:shrug:

I think CNN's getting on board... NOT. Jack is so alone over there.

I feel so much better knowing the White House is going to get to the bottom of this. Kind of like OJ's going to find the "real killer."

Bake

Arlen Specter feels Bush doesn't have proper respect and regard for the Senate and periodically punishes him for it. He gets all fretty and testy and holds hearings or threatens to hold hearings. He gives interview after interview saying how he disagrees with Bush. And then........nada.

It's easy to misinterpret his tantrums as independence or as nonpartisan regard for what's right, but none of that is really going on. He'll hold hearings and bark and growl, but in the end, his vote is where the GOP wants it. And that's fine with him. It's just the noise and flailing about that he wants. He wants to remind Bush that the Senate has some power and should be respected. That's all. Not any real change. In the end, he will never really do anything to change anything. Once the tantrum's over and he feels he's made his point, he's back to the party line.

A gutless worm he may be, but this posturing and then folding is more about having the emotional maturity and self-control of a toddler. I'm amazed Jack doesn't see that.