They stayed unmarried for our freedom

Now, this is most interesting. In the usual Glenn Greenwald fashion, he dips deeply into the trough that is Arlen Specter's cravenness in once again caving to the GOP's agenda that none of the Cheney administration's extra-constitutional activities should see the light of judicial scrutiny, he notes a little bump in the road for Specter and DeWine.

The agreement appears to pave the way for the committee to approve Specter’s bill and one sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) granting the surveillance program legal authority. GOP aides say the chances of the bills’ reaching the Senate floor this year are unknown because of a crowded schedule and the dwindling number of workdays left this session. . . .

The panel had been expected to mark up Specter’s and DeWine’s bills Thursday but, instead, the committee will work on legislation on same-sex marriage. Two prominent conservative leaders, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, met Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last week.

The delay of the markup on the NSA-related bills could imperil the compromise on the Specter and DeWine bills. The longer the agreement has to last before committee action, the more likely it is to be mulled over and picked apart, a GOP aide said.

Right now, the Republicans in Congress are more invested in pleasing the radical clerics than in getting Bush's back. And it really sums up These Great Times: Congress is somewhat more committed to adding an amendment to the Constitution restraining a single group of people from holy matrimony then they are to making legal and free from FISA court jurisdiction NSA domestic spying activities.

I think they're selling themselves short, though. I think they can manage to symbolically try to make the Constitution teh gay-proof and render Congress's role in checking and balancing the Executive branch moot.