Another moderate Republican melts like a warm turd in the rain. Arlen Spector caves, and the Republicans continue their lockstep march to replace our Constitutional freedoms with tyranny:

The White House is nearing an agreement with Congress on legislation that would write President Bush's warrantless surveillance program into law, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Sunday.

So, Bush breaks the law, and the Republicans obligingly rewrite the law so he won't break it any more. I sure wish I could get a deal like that.

Here's what Spector has to say for himself:

"I've talked to ranking officials in the White House, and we're close," Specter said. "I'm not making any predictions until we have it all nailed down, but I think there is an inclination to have it submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and that would be a big step forward for the protection of constitutional rights and civil liberties."

Bullshit. Bush broke the law, and everyone knows it. Otherwise, why the fuck are they rewriting the law?

So where are all Republicans who chanted "rule of law" while they were impeaching Clinton over a blowjob?

Where is the party of personal responsibility?

Where is the "actions have consequences" crowd?

Where are the gasbags who don't want to "reward bad behavior"?

Where are the pundits who lament "defining deviancy down"?

If they "hate us for our freedoms," why are the Republicans destroying the Constitution that gives us those freedoms?

Bush already says he can disobey any law that he wants to through his signing statements. And now the Republicans give him a "get out of jail free" card for whatever's left over.

Or, as the Founders wrote:

The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

If there was ever a time for the Dems to stand up, this is it. This is not business as usual.