Spector v. Bush

I like Sen Arlen Spector (R-PA). After scolding Gonzales in the hearings Monday, he now is making a very reasonable proposal. He's going to draft legislation to have FISC review the NSA-surveillance program. He's suggested this before but now he wants to pass legislation to force it.

This strikes me as very clever. If the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court finds it constitutional, great, if not, then the program needs to change to become so. Hard for the President to disagree with that. It's the court's job to do this and Congress' job to oversee the executive branch. Spector cites Article I, Section 8 "To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces" as giving Congress this authority. Now will the Congress pass such a law? Well Democrats will vote yes and enough Republicans are upset by this they probably will to. Then it needs to go to the President to sign, would he? Well he's never vetoed anything, imagine the outcry if this was his first veto?

I suspect it will go similar to the McCain Torture Amendment, lots of lobbying from the administration but ultimately unsuccessful. Maybe Spector will embed it in some other important legislation as McCain did with his? Anyway, Spector's idea sounds like a good one. It seems only FISC is in a position to be able to get all the details of the program to make a knowledgeable decision.