What a surprise! AP:

The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

After all, we know that making sure Democrats never get subpoena power and national security are one and the same thing to the Bush administration. So, honestly, what's the issue here?

But there are more surprises!

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse ... noted that the OPR's mission is not to investigate possible wrongdoing in other agencies, but to determine if Justice Department lawyers violated any ethical rules. He declined to comment when asked if the end of the inquiry meant the agency believed its lawyers had handled the wiretapping matter ethically.

No, that's not the surprise.

This is the surprise:

[Rep. Maurice Hinchey D-NY] is one of many House Democrats who have been highly critical of the domestic eavesdropping program first revealed in December. He said lawmakers would push to find out who at the NSA denied the Justice Department lawyers security clearance.

"This administration thinks they can just violate any law they want, and they've created a culture of fear to try to get away with that. It's up to us to stand up to them," said Hinchey.

Yes! Good for Hinchey. More like this, please.