THE NSA NONHEARINGS

Bruce Shapiro writes: Washington has never seen a noninvestigation quite like the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing into the NSA surveillance scandal: On the one hand, Attorney General Gonzales's cheerful defiance of any probing question; on the other hand, the Republican committee leadership falling over one another to avoid calling Gonzales to account. Senator Arlen Specter, once a proudly independent civil libertarian (and who has made dissenting noises over the NSA program), gave the Attorney General a free pass by refusing Senator Russ Feingold's request to take his testimony under oath. Then Specter punted Congressional responsibility for the whole matter by proposing that the secret FISA court rule on the entire program, radically expanding its purview from individual warrants to national security policy. It was not the toothless Judiciary Committee but Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee who finally managed to alarm the White House enough to get a full committee briefing on the surveillance operation. The new White House strategy relies on letting Republicans and Democrats alike vent about being excluded from briefings, as a distraction from the core issue: the surveillance program. Democrats, with a few notable exceptions like Feingold, are slouching to the occasion, complaining about the President's abuse of authority but not challenging domestic spying itself.

WEAPONS OF MISDIRECTION

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