Specter wants to excuse Bush’s lawlessness
Glenn Greenwald’s take on Specter’s latest craven proposal is here. I’m not convinced that Specter's idea is a new low—after all, we have Bush I’s pardons for the Iran-Contra felons to consider—but it is rather despicable. Specter’s bill would make seeking a surveillance warrant optional, and grant amnesty to the Bushevik lawbreakers.
The idea that the President's allies in Congress would enact legislation which expressly shields government officials, including the President, from criminal liability for past lawbreaking is so reprehensible that it is difficult to describe.[…]
What makes this proposed amnesty so particularly indefensible is that Specter himself has spent the last two months loudly complaining about the fact that he -- along with the rest of the country -- has been denied any information about how this illegal, secret eavesdropping has been conducted.
Greenwald asks a few questions:
Will any Democrats other than Russ Feingold object to the effort by the Senate to shield the President and his administration from liability for past lawbreaking? Will the media discuss in any meaningful way the rather extraordinary development of the Senate literally placing the President above the law by declaring that he cannot be punished for his patently illegal acts against Americans?
before concluding:
We are at the point we're at because the Congress and the media have been so eager to allow the President free reign to do what he wants. This new Specter bill drags the country to a still new level of lawlessness. We will soon see if there are any limits to the willingness of Congress and the media to tolerate and endorse transparent attacks on our system of government.