The Daily Background

Arlen Specter (R-PA, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) announced late yesterday that he was expecting a letter from the Administration clarifying Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ recent obfuscated testimony regarding the NSA’s spying program by noon today:

The Hill has an article out, about how Arlen Specter (R-PA, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) was briefed on Monday about the Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program in hopes of understanding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ obsfucated defense of his rhetoric in last week’s hearings.

Specter emerged from the meeting saying the Administration had 18 hours to produce a letter explaining Gonzales’ defense, with that deadline ending at noon Tuesday. Apparently the Administration has said they will send him and Senate Judiciary Chair Pat Leahy (D-VT) a letter as he has requested, and that letter will be subsequently released to the media by Specter’s office.

Well, noon came and went and neither Specter nor Leahy has received a letter or an explanation, which apparently will be coming from the Department of Justice, not the White House. Here’s an exchange between White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and reporters today:

QUESTION: Tony, has a letter gone to the Hill, specifically to Senator Specter, concerning Alberto Gonzales?

SNOW: No. There will be something going up to the Hill. It will be a little bit later. It’s not quite meeting the noon deadline. But he in fact will get a response today.

First, we thank Senator Specter. He agreed to get himself read into the program yesterday. He received a briefing and he had some questions. And those questions are going to be answered. They’ll be answered in the course of the day. But they have not yet been provided. We expect within the next few hours that he’ll have a full response.

QUESTION: Tony, following on that, Senator Specter put out this statement saying that the letter would be available to the news media, it would address the questions about the attorney general testifying accurately.

You had an interesting time trying to parse the different language the other day when we pressed about it. How will this letter…

SNOW: I will let the documents speak for themselves and he’ll have an opportunity.

And so, we wait. And continue to wonder why The Hill chose to include the word “bombshell” in their article.

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