Senate Ducks Wiretap Controversy

The Senate Intelligence Committee will not investigate the warrantless NSA wiretaps. This just proves that Pat Roberts never fails to disappoint. Robert told the Washington Post, "The administration is now committed to legislation and has agreed to brief more intelligence committee members on the nature of the surveillance program. The details of this agreement will take some time to work out." Roberts fails to go into the details of what those details are.

I will give some details. The Huffington Post reports on rumors that Karl Rove threatened to black ball any Republican Senator who votes to curtail the President's power to illegally wiretap. Sen. John D. Rockefeller said, "It is more than apparent to me that the White House has applied heavy pressure in recent days, in recent weeks, to prevent the committee from doing its job." Rockefeller is speaking of Dick Cheney's behind closed door meetings with Republican Congress members.

A Zogby poll finds that 52% of Americans favor impeaching the President over the illegal wiretaps. An Ipso poll is 50% think the wiretaps are illegal to 48% believing they're just. 2% are undecided. Given time, the polls will creep towards the White House's disadvantage. This administration is fresh out of political capital.

Mister Roberts

Here is some good news.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge ordered the Bush administration Thursday to release documents about its warrantless surveillance program or spell out what it is withholding, a setback to efforts to keep the program under wraps.

The bad news is it looks like Senator Pat Roberts is going to provide cover for the anministration. I give some examples.

Roberts on the Valerie Plame leak.

ROBERTS: There's a five-year period, OK? And whether or not that five-year period had been reached or not is still questionable. And I must say from a common sense standpoint, driving back and forth to work to the CIA headquarters, I don't know if that really qualifies as being, you know, covert.

That is quite a statement from the Senate Intelligence Chairman. Is Roberts saying that people who work undercover for the CIA should never report to the CIA offices? Using an automobile to go "back and forth" from the same office disqualifies an operative of covert status. How?

Raw Story has a long list of instances where Roberts carried water for the administration.

Roberts statements about a Senate investigation on warrantless wiretaps.

"I believe that such an investigation at this point ... would be detrimental to this highly classified program and efforts to reach some accommodation with the administration," Roberts said.

I can't say I'm surprised.

Update: Spokewoman Sarah Little on Pat Roberts views of the legality of the NSA program.

The Bush administration found a key ally on Capitol Hill Monday as it broadened its aggressive defense of a recently revealed domestic spying program that used warrantless surveillance.

Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, “believes the program is consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution,” Sarah Little, Roberts’ spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.