The Daily Background

For a while, many bloggers thought that Senator Arlen Specter (a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been charged with investigating the NSA’s illegal program) was going to do a half-assed job and basically conclude what the Administration wanted him to: that there was nothing illegal about the NSA’s spying-on-Americans program.

And there was a lot of criticism of the guy. Just as there was some criticism when John Ascroft appointed special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald because Fitz is a Republican (of course we now know that Fitz is the man, more on that this week, heh, heh, heh, if you know what I mean). I for one bit my tongue because I hoped that he would in fact turn out to be a very significant positive force in this. And I think he just might be. He has promised to subpoena telco executives that illegally cooperated with the NSA before Congress, and ThinkProgress is reporting that Specter is admitting that he hasn’t gotten anywhere with this. The man is pissed off, and I certainly expect some fireworks to occur during General Hayden’s confirmation process in the Senate, due to Hayden’s work as the Chief of the NSA, and his work installing this illegal program.

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