Specter cave-in countdown: Update

Last Sunday I predicted that Arlen Specter would find some signature way to torpedo Russ Feingold's censure resolution with the Judiciary Committee takes it up on Friday--this after insisting that Bush was "plain wrong" to claim he could authorize warrentless surveilance of American citizens.

(Okay, "predicted" is probably a little too self-aggrandizing, since Specter's pattern in such matters is so well-known. Let's say "pointed out" instead.)

Anyway, semantic haggling aside, the first tremblings of the Specter cave-in may have already been detected. Here's the first half of the story, at National Review Online a few hours ago:

Specter also discussed a conflict with Judiciary Committee Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold over Feingold's call to censure President Bush. Specter has scheduled a committee hearing for Friday on the censure resolution, but he said Feingold has asked that it be delayed.

"He says he's going to be someplace else," Specter said of Feingold. "I don't know if I can have a hearing without him, and my instinct is, I'm offering him a hearing, and if he doesn't take it, he's not going to have a hearing."

But over at firedoglake they've got Feingold's blunt denial that he's asked for any postponement, in which he also raises the question of whether it might in fact be Specter who's looking for a way to get out of holding the hearing on Friday.

Stay tuned.