Bill Frist: For the rules when they help him, against them when they don't

Firedoglake's got their eye on a little bit of cynical hypocrisy coming out of the Senate Majority leader's mouth.

It's also worth going directly to Glenn Greenwald's post in order to remember that this little bit of, dare I say it, flip-flopping, just may be crafted to disrupt and avoid hearings about the NSA domestic eavesdropping program. This is not the first time that Frist has threatened to change the rules and procedures of the Senate in order to protect his party's political machinations. Remember the Nuclear Option.

Glenn points out:

While Frist’s threat here is, in one sense, of a piece with those tactics, it is actually quite extraordinary and motivated by a particularly corrupt objective. The whole purpose of the Senate Intelligence Committee – the only reason why it exists – is to exercise oversight over controversial intelligence activities. Whatever else one might want to say about the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program, it is controversial on every front. There is no conceivable rationale for the Intelligence Committee not to hold hearings.

It would be an extraordinary abdication of the responsibility owed to Americans by the Intelligence Committee for it not to investigate the Administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program – a program which scores of prominent politicians and scholars from across the political spectrum have condemned as being legally dubious at best, and which polls show a majority of Americans oppose and believe is illegal.

ReddHedd over at firedoglake implores readers to get the word out about this potentially shitfuck of a move. She suggests that people "take some time to write, fax and call your Senators, radio talk shows and media folks -- both via e-mail and on any media blog comments threads where this would be approriate to discuss." Think about doing it.

- Glitter