Signs of hope? Maybe.

Is there hope? A front page story in today's USA Today seems to think so:

After five years of a concerted White House campaign, there are tentative signs that Congress and the courts are beginning to push back against what has been the greatest expansion of presidential powers in a generation or more.

Frankly, I'm not so optimistic. So far, Congress has only risen up to protect their own offices from being searched in what seems to me to have been an entirely legal, if unprecedented, action to get the goods on Jefferson. When it comes to other aspects of presidential power they've rolled over and played dead.

Despite the article pointing to Arlen Specter as a champion of oversight, I haven't seen Specter do anything but cave when the pressure was on.

Nor have I seen much from the Courts so far. Perhaps that's more because Bush has successfully sought to keep stuff out of the courts, but the courts' willingness to fold in front of state secrects privelege claims has not been helpful.

One sign if hopeful though; the fact that USA Today even considered publishing this article. It's the first place I've seen any major newspaper discuss how far reaching the Bush claims of presidential power go on its news pages. Three cheers for USA Today.