More good news

I've discussed the dreadful Specter bill before. The one that would retro-actively legitimize the Bush-sanctioned (but court condemned) warrantless NSA wiretapping. Well, it failed to get out of committee today thanks to Russ Feingold and a few worthies in the Senate.

mcjoan at DailyKos:

The good guys, led by Russ Feingold, won one on Capitol Hill today:

President Bush's support proved insufficient to push a bill authorizing his warrantless wiretapping program through the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's chairman, said the bill stalled because of election-year obstructionism.

[...]

Opposition to the bill was no surprise. Feingold and five other senators, three of them Republicans, wrote Specter a day earlier complaining that a new version of his bill should be studied further before the panel votes.

"Election year obstructionism." That's a good one, particularly considering none of the six Senators who wrote to Specter about their opposition to his legislation are facing reelection this year. But I guess we can put to rest the lie that Specter is a moderate Republican. Despite his protestations that not enacting his legislation will leave the administration's warrantless wiretapping unchecked, his legislation -- written with Cheney -- practically removes the FISA Court from the picture. No, Specter is not a moderate, and he's not trying to provide a check on this overreaching executive. He's just one more Rubber Stamp.