February 16, 2006
Follow-Up to Wait -- Erase, Erase, Erase...
Following up on an earlier Big Lizards post, it appears as though we were correct: a deal is in the works to abort the politically stupid fight against the NSA al-Qaeda-communications intercept program. According to CBS:
Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts said he has worked out an agreement with the White House to change U.S. law regarding the National Security Agency's warrantless telephone surveillance program and provide more information about it to Congress.
"We are trying to get some movement, and we have a clear indication of that movement," Roberts said.
Without offering specifics, Roberts said the agreement with the White House provides "a fix" to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and offers more briefings to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The portent is self evident, though that doesn't stop us from pointing it out anyway: the Senate is backing hurriedly away from an investigation in a strategic rearward advance. The "more briefings" is just so they don't lose their entire face.
The deal comes as the committee was set to have a meeting Thursday about whether to open an investigation into the hotly disputed program. Roberts indicated the deal may eliminate the need for such an inquiry.
Finally, in a brazen and likely desperate rewrite of history, CBS (the "fake but accurate" network) produces its own version of the political dynamic:
Democrats have been demanding an investigation but some Republicans don't want to tangle the panel in a testy election-year probe. [!]
Yeah, that's it... the Democrats were poised to destroy the Bush administration, probably forcing the president to resign; but the Republicans -- who have so much to lose in this year's election by the Democrats attacking a vital national-security program to intercept al-Qaeda communications -- are the ones who will kill the probe. Yep, the Democrats were just itching, itching to have three months of prime-time, broadcast hearings demanding to know why the administration has finally begun connecting the dots.
No matter how the Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence vote, I suspect they're all breathing a sigh of relief, much like a condemned man already strapped to the table when the phone call from the governor finally arrives.
Hatched by Dafydd on this day, February 16, 2006, at the time of 6:10 PM
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Comments
The following hissed in response by: matoko kusanagi
Oh, snaps!!!
i thought they would hold the line at least until the leaker trials started.
bummer, the dems are evolving.
The above hissed in response by: matoko kusanagi ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://biglizards.net/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 17, 2006 5:32 AM
The following hissed in response by: dasbow
Yep. These are the same Democrats who DEMANDED a debate and vote on the War Resolution, then cried foul when the Republicans offered it to them. Why, how dare they make the Dems go on record before an election? It was obviously a dirty trick to make the Dems either vote for Chimpy McBushhitlerburton's war or look like wimps.
The above hissed in response by: dasbow at February 17, 2006 8:03 AM
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