Political Skullduggery

The Republicans--not usually known as soft on crime--are scrambling to pull the administration's fat from the frying pan by trying to retroactively legalize the extra-legal NSA warrantless eavesdropping program.

All the usual suspects make an appearance.

At 5 p.m. today, several Senate Republicans will huddle with Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) in hopes of loosening one of Congress's toughest knots: how to provide oversight of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance operations without impairing the ability to spy on possible terrorists.

Frist wants to keep his caucus from fracturing over the issue now that Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (Pa.) is proposing a bill that many fellow Republicans oppose. The White House, meanwhile, has signaled that it wants as little congressional meddling as possible.

The Specter bill is a pathetically weak cover-up attempt as it is, and these apologists are trying to make mockery of even that.

Specter is circulating language that would require the FISA judges to rule on the NSA program's constitutionality. Should it pass that test, it would operate under FISA guidelines. Specter's committee will hold a hearing on the program's constitutionality today.

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) is pushing a rival plan that would keep the NSA program separate from FISA and provide a mechanism for oversight by a bipartisan band of House and Senate members.

"Keep the NSA program separate from FISA?"

The program is only separate from FISA in that the administration says so. A careful reading of law instructs otherwise. DeWine means to legalize what is currently illegal.

Some Republicans consider Specter's plan too restrictive and DeWine's too lenient. Frist's gathering of Republicans from the judiciary and intelligence committees today will seek a possible compromise, several sources said.

One idea, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said yesterday, "would include statutory blessing of the current surveillance program, a limited but meaningful role for the FISA court and a warrant requirement" if there is reason to believe "an American citizen is collaborating with the enemy." The plan, which some call "DeWine plus," would not allow the FISA court to rule the NSA program unconstitutional, said Graham, a Judiciary Committee member.

That is having your cake and eating it too. Graham wishes to retroactively legalize the lawbreaking, and prevent the courts from declaring the program illegal.

Sheesh.

Intelligence committee member Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) hopes "there will be a way that aspects of Senator Specter's and Senator DeWine's legislation can be married," her spokeswoman, Antonia Ferrier, said.

Even if the Senate finds a middle path, it is unclear the House would follow. Intelligence committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) "has been pretty strong that the program does not need to fall under FISA, that the authority lies elsewhere," said his spokesman, Jamal Ware.

The voters in Hoekstra's district need to be "pretty strong" so that the administration's co-conspirator does not win re-election in the fall.