"Blessed" is the peacemaker

In the otherwise-forgettable and not-worth-a-link "Godfather Part III" is the memorable character of Don Altobello, longtime associate of the Corleone family, whose preferred way of advancing his own interests is to come in the guise of the peacemaker.

"The richest man," says Don Altobello as he arranges the sell-out of one faction to another, "is the one with the most powerful friends."

Comes now Arlen Specter, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, failed presidential wannabe (so long ago it's nearly forgotten), and "peacemaker" between the Bush administration--especially Attorney General Gonzales--and, well, nearly everyone else.

Liberals, moderates, and sane people (not a perfectly overlapping set of Venn circles) keep hoping for Specter to finally deliver on his feigned outrage against the statutory and constitutional excesses of the Bush administration.

They hope in vain.

The ACLU sent out this statement today regarding the so-called "compromise" arrangement by which Bush says that he will allow--he will allow! the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution must be spinning in their graves!--judicial oversight of his domestic spying program:

You may have read headlines calling the Cheney-Specter bill on surveillance oversight a "compromise." But make no mistake, this deal is nothing short of a complete capitulation to the Bush administration.

The bill includes legalized assaults on our civil liberties worse even than the sweeping powers ceded to the government by the Patriot Act, and would write into law what is now the administration's belief that the president can wiretap any American he wants without any check.

From the Supreme Court to people on the street, America is starting to wake up to the Bush administration's abuse of power. Unfortunately, Congress hasn't gotten the message and is poised to rubber stamp a dangerous agenda that is doing real harm to our democracy.

Not only is Congress considering NSA "oversight" legislation that would hand the president vast new powers—only days after the Defense Department stated that it will comply with the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of detainees—a top Justice Department lawyer urged Congress to "ratify" the military commissions that the Supreme Court invalidated two weeks ago.

The headlines are full of White House spin claiming that Senator Arlen Specter's (R-PA) bill on surveillance is a successful compromise between Congress and the White House. Of course, Senator Specter would like you to believe he is taking a stand on the Bush's administration's actions because he knows that is what most Americans want Congress to do. But in reality these ill-advised proposals give the president a blank check to spy on Americans without a warrant and without mandatory judicial review of his actions.

Read Glenn Greenwald's take on the sham compromise, the Democrats' options, and the clueless (or craven) coverage by the respectable media.