Feingold!

Sadly for the Plumed Specter Cave Warbler, his attempts to free the Bush administration from a few more of the remaining Constutional checks on their behavior never made it out of committee.

Forbes.com reported this a few minutes ago:

President Bush's support proved insufficient to push a bill authorizing his warrantless wiretapping program through the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's chairman, said the bill stalled because of election-year obstructionism.

"We have seen the incipient stage of filibuster by amendment," the Pennsylvania Republican testily declared as he called off a vote to move his bill to the Senate floor. "Filibuster by speech, filibuster by amendment. Obstructionism."

The target of his ire was Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who spoke against the bill for about a quarter of the panel's two-hour meeting and offered four amendments. Feingold, a possible presidential candidate, said Specter's bill would give the White House too much power to eavesdrop without a warrant in some circumstances.

"The president has basically said: I'll agree to let a court decide if I'm breaking the law if you pass a law first that says I'm not breaking the law," Feingold said. "That won't help re-establish a healthy respect for separation of powers. It will only make matters worse."

Feingold opposes the GOP machine, again, and lives to tell about it--again. The other congressional Dems exchange puzzled looks--could there be some way that his tactics might be expanded, so that the Democrats acting together might increase their power? They would be a party, yes--but they would also be in opposition. A party . . . in opposition. What might we even call that, they wonder aloud? America holds its breath, waiting . . . waiting . . .

Postscript: Was anyone else as amused as I was by Specter's recitation of Feingold's offenses? I didn't think he had that kind of humor in him.