Specter accuses Cheney of going behind his back

Arlen Specter does not sound very happy about Cheney's hardball tactics. Cheney has been leaning heavily on various Republican members of the Judiciary Committee in order to get their word that no substansive hearings will be held. Specter, as chairman, does not like that:

In a letter to Cheney that the senator released to the news media, Specter said the vice president had cut him out of discussions with all the other Republicans on his own committee about oversight of the administration's eavesdropping programs, a subject on which Specter has often been at odds with the White House.

The trigger for Specter's anger was a deal Cheney made with the other Republicans on the committee to block testimony from phone companies that reportedly cooperated in providing call records to the National Security Agency.

Specter, who had been considering issuing subpoenas to compel telephone company executives to testify, learned of Cheney's actions only when he went into a closed meeting of the committee's Republicans on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after encountering the vice president at a weekly luncheon of all Senate Republicans.

What's funny to me is how childish Specter seems when talking about how Cheney dissed him by ignoring him at that party last week:

"I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some point," Specter wrote. "This was especially perplexing since we both attended the Republican senators caucus lunch yesterday and I walked directly in front of you on at least two occasions en route from the buffet to my table."

Awwwwww... isn't that cute? Specter's pissed because Cheney's not talking to him. This is so fucking highschool.

Obviously, I support Specter in this little dustup because Cheney is clearly trying to squash dissent, as he always does. This time he might not be able to stem the tide. Well, we can only hope. It's not like we have any power or say in the matter. This is just a squabble among the elites. The rest of us can only watch.