Oh, No, You Don't

Is this slick or what?

The Administration's illegal domestic wiretaps were ruled unconstitutional in Federal court, so Bushco appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (next stop, the Supreme Court.) Now, it seems they're waking up to the reality that what they did really was illegal and that they aren't likely to get away with it.

So they thought and thought: what to do, what to do? Ah! They appointed a (secret) special court to oversee the wiretapping, reversing a decision they defended for over a year, and now seek to dismiss their appeal, telling the Court that hey, we've got oversight now, so ... nevermind.

They told the new Congress that the oversight problem is fixed now, too, so no need to worry about it. Only problem is, they refuse to give any information whatsoever about this supposed impartial special oversight court.

Read the details here: Justice wants spying lawsuit dropped

Oh, and just in case they ever do get indicted for doing anything illegal, they've already taken steps to stack the deck in their favor. The Attorney General recently fired several liberal Federal judges and replaced them with judges more sympathetic to the Administration. This was done suddenly and without explanation. Well, you say, that's not a problem because those replacements have to be approved by Congress, right? Wrong. Dick Cheney removed that pesky little requirement by tacking on a last-minute earmark to a bill that had nothing to do with domestic spying.