A new pattern is emerging — Republicans talk about reform but then do nothing:
Like the cavalry rushing to the aid of the wrong troops, four Republican senators who had earlier declared battle against the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping have now proposed to give the surveillance program five years of near-bulletproof protection.
The new measure by Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine would significantly expand the administration’s power to intercept U.S. citizens’ international phone calls and e-mails without obtaining a warrant — even when they have not been implicated in any crime. It also would let the surveillance continue with much less oversight than Congress demanded in previous laws.
The four had voiced alarm about the program after it became public in December. Hagel and Snowe even threatened to vote with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee to launch a full investigation into what the National Security Agency has been doing. On Tuesday, however, Hagel and Snowe voted with their fellow Republicans to reject an investigation. Instead, in a deal with the White House, the committee created a seven-member terrorism surveillance subcommittee to receive regular briefings about domestic spying.
After the closed-door meeting, Republicans outlined a bill ostensibly to limit such surveillance and make it more accountable to lawmakers. But its provisions suggest that they are less concerned about the administration violating Americans’ legal rights than about Congress being kept out of the loop.
