Cafferty rips Specter a new one

I watched this on CNN the other day; Cafferty seemed a bit down.

From "The Situation Room" Tuesday:

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, on May the 11th on THE SITUATION ROOM, in the wake of news the government was secretly collecting the telephone call records of millions of Americans, I went on the air and said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MAY 11) CAFFERTY: We better all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because he might be all that is standing between us and a full-blown dictatorship in this country.

He's vowed to question these phone company executives about volunteering to provide the government with my telephone records and yours and tens of millions of other Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: What an idiot I am. I actually thought at the time Senator Specter was going to exercise his responsibility to provide some congressional oversight of the executive branch, you know, see if the White House is playing by the rules. Silly me.

In the end, Senator Specter has turned out to be yet another gutless Republican worm cowering in the face of pressure from the administration and fellow Republicans. There are not going to be any hearings. Americans won't find out if their privacy is being illegally invaded.

You know what the Senate Judiciary Committee settled for instead? Senator Orrin Hatch said he has won assurances from Vice President Dick Cheney that the White House will review proposed changes to the law that would restrict certain aspects of the NSA program.

Dick Cheney is going to decide if it's OK to spy on American citizens without a warrant. And this worthless bunch of senators has agreed to let him do it. It's a disgrace.