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Senate Intelligence committee chairman Pat Roberts accused of writing the White House a "series of blank checks" in one of the major hometown papers, the Wichita Eagle: "Roberts' credibility on the line:
Indeed. And the Kansas City Star is running an AP story today that shows Roberts backtracking from the NYT article Saturday saying that Roberts may seek to put the warrantless domestic spying program in compliance with FISA. More flack for Roberts from a KC Star columnist Saturday, "But there was some good news for this president. Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, Intelligence Committee chairman, promised harsher punishment for leakers. Why investigate scandal when you can sweep it under the rug — right, Senator?"... From Abu Ghraib abuses to secret CIA detainee prisons to the Valerie Plame affair, critics say, Roberts has become a dependable shill for the White House, ever ready to shield Bush policy from criticism and ever willing to compromise Congress' legitimate oversight role.
A prime example: He has dragged his feet on a promised but long-delayed Senate investigation into whether the White House cherry-picked and amplified prewar intelligence to fit its preconceived goal of invading Iraq.
This week, Roberts sidetracked a Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry into the possibly illegal National Security Agency wiretap program, saying the White House had agreed to brief lawmakers more regularly and to work with him on a behind-the-scenes "fix" of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. [...]
What's bothering many, though, is that Roberts seems prepared to write the Bush team a series of blank checks to conduct the war on terror, even to the point of ignoring policy mistakes and possible violations of law.
That's not oversight -- it's looking the other way.
(Thx to reader LL).