GOP Congress Drops the Ball Agian on NSA Oversight Hearings

The present GOP Congress is the worst in my lifetime when it comes to fulfilling its Constitutional role of oversight of the Executive. They are simply too rabidly partisan and too intent on lining their own pockets with sleazy campaign donations (from admittted felons) and taking exotic golf trips to do their real job. So it's no surprise that there will be no hearings on the NSA wiretaps. Let's start with Walter Pincus in the Washington Post: Senate Panel Blocks Eavesdropping Probe:

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted along party lines yesterday to reject a Democratic proposal to investigate the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program and instead approved establishing, with White House approval, a seven-member panel to oversee the effort.

Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) told reporters after the closed session that he had asked the committee "to reject confrontation in favor of accommodation" and that the new subcommittee, which he described as "an accommodation with the White House," would "conduct oversight of the terrorist surveillance program." The program, which became public in December, has allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between U.S. residents and suspected terrorists abroad without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that handles such matters.

The Democratic reaction was strong and sharp. c/o Raw Story: The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence rejected a proposal by Vice Chairman Sen. John D. Rockefeller to conduct a Congressional review of the NSA warrantless spying program Tuesday afternoon. In a statement released by Rockefeller's office to RAW STORY, a single line stands out: “As one of the few members of Congress who have been briefed on this program, I can honestly say the worst mistake we could make at this juncture is to legislate or attempt to amend FISA without having all the facts.”

Attorney blogger Glenn Greenwald writes:

Nobody who has lived outside of a cave for the last five years could possibly be surprised by any of this. One of the reason we are at the point we're at in our country -- where we have a President who not only breaks the law but claims he has the right to do so, while the media barely finds any of it worthy of much attention -- is because the Congress has completely abdicated its responsibilities at the altar of cult-like obedience to White House decrees. That's just one of the many rotted roots in our government.

I doubt that many people who want to ensure that the Administration is held accountable for their law-breaking were placing their hopes in the likes of those principle-free, easily manipulated "independent Republicans" such as Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel. If this scandal is to be resolved how it ought to be, it won't be because of anything they do.