Arlen Specter's festering FISA wound: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica

I meant to link this earlier in the week, but Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) had some harsh words for the FISA Amendments Act in a recent MSNBC interview:

This business of wiretapping is not in order in accordance with Constitutional rights and where you have the immunity granted to the telephone companies, that is still a festering wound and some speculation as to whether that will be asserted by a new administration.

The only problem, to extend Specter's metaphor, is that the good senator looks a lot more like Klingsor than Parsifal in the ongoing FISA drama. Sure, Specter wanted to allow the warrantless wiretapping lawsuits to proceed, with the government replacing the complicit telecoms as defendant, but when it came down to it, Specter voted for the FAA. 

Still, hypocrisy, as they say, is the tribute vice pays to virtue, so I'm disinclined to give Specter too much grief over this. As EFF's Kevin Bankston has observed, the Obama administration will have ample discretion to effectively undo the immunity grant once in office, and statements like Specter's could help to provide the necessary political cover. 

Read Original Article (Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.)