Specter barking again


Arlen Specter's on again-off again threat to force telecon executives to testify on the NSA telephone and internet eavesdropping program is apparently on again. This is beginning to get too comical for words:

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman says he's prepared to force telephone company executives to testify about the White House's eavesdropping program if the Bush administration doesn't fully cooperate in drafting new rules on what's allowable.

"If we don't get some results, I'm prepared to go back to demand hearings and issue subpoenas if necessary," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Sunday on CNN's Late Edition.

Specter said he was more hopeful, after talking Thursday with Vice President Dick Cheney, that committee hearings and subpoenas could be avoided.

Specter had threatened to subpoena executives of major phone companies to get them to testify about their cooperation with the National Security Agency. But one company lawyer has told Specter the executives wouldn't be able to testify about any classified information.

And remember, all he's trying to do is pass a bill making it theoretically possible, but highly unlikely, that a secret court will review the constitutionality of the program.

The likelihood is that once again the Senator won't bite. But if he does, he'll let go as soon as the phone companies tell him that they have been barred from testifying by George Bush .
Posted: Monday - June 12, 2006 at 09:24 PM          

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