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Bouncing checks and balances

Congress is set once again to abdicate their oversight responsibility.

From the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON - Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts said he has worked out an agreement with the White House to change U.S. law regarding the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program and provide more information about it to Congress.

"We are trying to get some movement, and we have a clear indication of that movement," Roberts, R-Kan., said.

Without offering specifics, Roberts said the agreement with the White House provides "a fix" to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and offers more briefings to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

There is one sentence in this article that sums up the GOP thinking succinctly:
Democrats have been demanding an investigation but some Republicans don't want to tangle the panel in a testy election-year probe. (Emphasis added)

The only thing Republicans care about is getting re-elected. The unfortunate thing for the rest of us is they don't bother to do their f'ing job when they do. They might as well demolish the Capitol Building since we don't seem to be using it for anything important, like upholding the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

I have a good nickname for Senator Roberts: Mr. Fix-It. Because apparently there isn't much that the good Senator from Kansas wouldn't help 'fix' for the Bush administration.

Update: Glenn Greenwald over at Unclaimed Territory helped put this apparent setback into perspective for me. It will indeed be a Long Hard Slog.