Specter at it again

Specter is trying to sell a new bill as a way to bring spying on Americans by Bush and the White House back under control of the courts.

WASHINGTON - The White House has conditionally agreed to a court review of its controversial eavesdropping program, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday.

Specter said President Bush has agreed to sign legislation that would authorize the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to review the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's most high-profile monitoring operations…

Specter said the legislation, which has not yet been made public, was the result of "tortuous" negotiations with the White House since June.

I'm not prepared to get too excited just yet. If Bush is willing to go along with this bill, it probably includes all the give aways that Specter has repeatedly obfuscated; i) amnesty for prior violations of the law, ii) restrictions on what the courts can rule, etc., etc. It's going to be a bad bill if Bush accepts it. That, of course, is why it's being kept secret.