Wonkette

As you know, yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to reject a motion by Senator Rockefeller to hold hearings on President Bush’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program. Elsewhere, the wheels are turning in the halls of Congress to hastily grant the President after-the-fact power to continue to wiretap Americans without oversight from any legal authority.

We know that here at Wonkette, we’re often tagged as snarky complainers who contribute little more than irrelevant mirthmaking. And we’ve been a little critical of this eavesdropping program in the past. But for once, we thought to ourselves: “Why, Wonkette, why? Why not embrace the administration’s unique vision? Why do we always have to tear down the efforts of our elected officials? Why not rise to the spirit of the occasion, and set an example for others to follow?”

Needless to say, we started feeling really good about ourselves. And so, we decided to call the offices of Senator Pat Roberts.

(Our conversation after the jump.)

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Despite our fervent hopes, a day of Senate showdowns ended last night without any casualties being reported. While bereft of the trappings of parliamentary authority, the Senate Democrats successfully deployed one of their rhyming couplets to earn barely-bipartisan support for a filibuster, later reaching a compromise with Majority Leader Bill Frist by agreeing to “extend it, not end it” for six months rather than three. Proving once again, no one can kick the cans of national importance down the road quite like your elected officials.

Both sides, naturally, claimed victory. And why shouldn’t they? After all, the six month extension all but guarantees that the Patriot Act can be used for its primary purpose as an election year attack-ad bludgeon.

The Patriot Act originally passed the Senate on a 99-1 vote at a moment in American History where politicians were jockeying for an opportunity to sodomize the Statue of Liberty to better prove their undying patriotism.

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As many of you know, Vice President Dick Cheney cut short his international hobnob to be in town to cast the tie-breaking vote on the so-called deficit reduction bill. Supporters of the bill are glad that Cheney made himself available — clearly their strategy of not putting the bill on a rooftop in New Orleans worked. MORE »

One of the season’s favorite GOP talking points concerns a 2002 incident where Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who is black and Republican, had Oreos thrown at him by detractors, who were hateful and presumably Democratic. It’s been bandied in a boatload of dispatches ever since, and recently prompted RNC chair Ken Mehlman to demand his DNC counterpart Howard Dean renounce the ugly racist incident. MORE »

On to some belated acknowledgment of happier news. Last night, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved the McCain-Graham amendment to the military spending bill prohibiting “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” of military detainees. The wracking sobs of Alberto Gonzales were audible from down the street. And we’re also sure that it’s pure coincidence that the Senate should take a hardline stand against inhuman and degrading confinement on the verge of another marathon interrogation of a Supreme Court nominee about as likely to deliver recognizably human opinions as a butterfly would deliver the Gettysburg Address. — HOLLY MARTINS MORE »

The WaPo’s Dana Milbank tagged along as Harriet Miers started her visiting tour among US senators yesterday. The Supreme Court nominee’s publicly expressed opinions were few–though she did concede to Texas Sen. John Cornyn that Austin was indeed a “great place” and Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy that the photographers assembled around them “would probably love” to visit Vermont this time of year, silencing those who suspected her of wavering on the fall foliage issue. Then, however, came the blockbuster: MORE »