Elections have consequences

Glenn Greenwald is almost giddy with hopeful expectations:

Eric Lichtblau has an article in this morning's New York Times as pleasing to the ear as any Mozart symphony:

The Bush administration escalated its defense of the National Security Agency’s domestic wiretapping program on Thursday, even as Democrats in Congress vowed to investigate the program aggressively once they assume power. . . .

But Democrats sounded impatient to begin getting more answers after what they characterized as 11 months of stonewalling by the administration since the program was publicly disclosed last December.

“This administration first hid its domestic spying program from Congress and Americans for years, and when it was discovered, has ducked and weaved on its legal justifications,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, who is to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Democrats take control.

Republicans have held out hope of getting such legislation approved by the full Congress during the lame-duck session, and Mr. Bush pushed anew on that front Thursday, calling passage an “important priority in the war on terror" . . . .

Emboldened by their electoral victory, Democrats said they believed it would be all but impossible for the Republicans to pass wiretapping legislation before the current Congress adjourns, or to win approval of separate legislation immunizing telephone companies from liability over their cooperation in wiretapping operations.

“There’s no chance of that happening,” predicted a senior Democratic aide for the House Judiciary Committee, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

Indeed, rather than move to authorize the program, Democrats said they would push in January to investigate how the program had been run and would seek legislation to restrict or ban outright the use of wiretaps without warrants.

Let's just repeat that -- "rather than move to authorize the program, Democrats said they would push in January to investigate how the program had been run . . . . "

[...]

Apparently, Democrats are according yesterday's "demand" by the President that the Terrorist Surveillance Act be passed by the lame duck Congress all of the respect it merits. And it is truly a miraculous sight -- almost surreal -- to read that the Democrats are going to block the President from having his "national security" wishes granted and instead investigate what he has been doing.

It actually feels like we have more than one branch of government again. The days of listening to the President make demands and then reading all of the GOP Committee Chairmen say what a superb idea it was and stress how important it is to do everything the President wants as quickly as possible seem to have come to an end. Much vigilance is required with regard to the Democrats -- that should not be overlooked -- and the administration will undoubtedly resist in all sorts of ways, but this is a superb start to restoring the basic mechanics of our system of government.