You can't be wrong all of the time

As a rule, I tend to put Arlen Specter in the "don't touch" pile with Orrin Hatch and Mike Huckabee. But we're finally on the same page. At the ACLU convention this week, Specter had the testicular fortitude to denounce the executive practice of demanding confidential news sources and the judicial beginnings of upholding these demands. In case you don't know, confidential sources are one of the hallmarks of a free press, since it means people inside organizations can get information out without being retaliated against. (Don't tell me whistle-blower acts are effective either- they're too new and those people can still be targeted, just with more discretion). Without them, we may never have known about Watergate, the Iran-Contra boondoggle, the Abu-Ghraib catastrophe, or any number of secret happenings that affect the public.

Arlen actually said that rather than the telecoms standing trial for illegal wire-tapping, the federal government should. I couldn't agree more. To be fair, they should both be held accountable. The "following orders" argument doesn't fly with me. The telcos were aware what they were doing was wrong. They should have had the chutzpah to stand up and make it public instead of caving in to unreasonable demands. It's too little too late for a group of people that should have come clean sooner (say when it happened rather than professing to clean up during an election year) but at least some of the players are willing to stand up for keeping a relatively free press and to say that what happened was wrong. Now we just have to wait and see if all we get are the usual condemnations with no substantial action or protections for those wronged.

Let's not ignore the fact that Arlen voted FOR the "surveillance reform" that allowed this to happen in the first place. He conveniently forgot to mention this at the convention. He also didn't mention that he voted to grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms. Hopefully he's realized that what he did was stupid, irresponsible, damaging to civil liberties, and blatantly unconstitutional. More likely, he's realized the wind is changing and he needs to sail with it. But (some) kudos to Arlen. And boo on warrant-less domestic spying. Now we just need a politician who's willing to shut down the improper use of NSLs (national security letters) and we'll be making some progress.