Okay. I’m not kidding. The following paragraph really does appear in today’s New York Times:
In an interview, Mr. Specter described his relationship with Mr. Cheney as generally friendly and cordial. But he was clearly put out by the vice president’s handling of the issue and his failure to pull Mr. Specter aside as he made several trips to the buffet for tuna salad and hard-boiled egg, salad dressing and fruit.
In fact, Specter was so put out about Dick Cheney going behind his back to obstruct the Judiciary Committee’s investigation of illegal domestic surveillance of United States citizens that we wrote Dick a letter.
The lawmaker, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, accused Vice President Dick Cheney of meddling behind his back in the committee’s business, bringing into the open a conflict that has simmered for months.
In a letter to Mr. Cheney that the senator released to the news media, Mr. Specter said the vice president had cut him out of discussions with all the other Republicans on his own committee about oversight of the administration’s eavesdropping programs, a subject on which Mr. Specter has often been at odds with the White House.
The trigger for Mr. Specter’s anger was a deal made by Mr. Cheney with the other Republicans on the committee to block testimony from phone companies that reportedly cooperated in providing call records to the National Security Agency.
Mr. Specter, who had been considering issuing subpoenas to compel telephone company executives to testify, learned of Mr. Cheney’s actions only when he went into a closed meeting of the committee’s Republicans on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after encountering the vice president at a weekly luncheon of all Senate Republicans.
Mr. Specter’s tone in the letter was restrained, but he made no effort to hide his displeasure at having been outmaneuvered and, in his view, undermined, by Mr. Cheney.
“I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some point,” Mr. Specter wrote. “This was especially perplexing since we both attended the Republican senators caucus lunch yesterday and I walked directly in front of you on at least two occasions en route from the buffet to my table.”
There is nothing illegal in the Vice-President talking to Republican members of the Judiciary Committee behind the back of its chairman. But, considering the fact that the committee is in charge of the oversight of the executive as it pertains to obeying the law, this really amounts to an obstruction of justice. Sure, there is no statutory prohibition against the executive obstructing justice in this way, but that doesn’t change the fact that Cheney (and Josh Bolten) is obstructing the investigation. They don’t even deny it.
One Republican with close ties to the administration, who was granted anonymity to discuss the thinking at the White House, said Mr. Specter had been increasingly nettlesome to the administration with his persistent criticism, especially of the surveillance programs.
Noting that the White House was ultimately pleased with Mr. Specter’s help in securing the confirmations of Mr. Bush’s Supreme Court nominees, this Republican said, “All of that good will he’s built up has really been dissipated because he keeps smacking them around.”
A senior White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the president’s chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, had reached out to Mr. Specter on Friday to press the administration’s case for how to handle the phone companies.
The official described the conversation as “cordial but not productive.”
“That’s when we started reaching out to other members,” the official said. “It was not out of disrespect.”
The official went on, “The chairman’s position is well known, and he knows our position, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work with other members who may be more open to our position.”
Everyone knows that the administration has committed an impeachable offense by illegally using the National Security Agency to datamine the emails, internet usage, and telephone calls of ordinary, entirely innocent American citizens, without probable cause and without a warrant. Specter knows it. And he intends to investigate it. And yet, the criminality is evidently so obvious, that they can’t even let Specter get started on an investigation, which would probably be a whitewash if at all possible. Instead, they are trying to undermine Specter by getting to his erstwhile allies on the committee.
There is no limit to the illegality that Cheney and this administration will stoop to get their way. They must be impeached. Cheney first. Then Bush.
