Abdicated responsibility

They must be allergic to authority.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter reversed course Tuesday, announcing he will not call on phone company executives to testify on their cooperation with the government in a secret eavesdropping program run by the National Security Agency.

The senator from Pennsylvania acknowledged his reversal was forced upon him by his Republican colleagues in a private session prior to the afternoon hearing. The announcement was promptly decried by several Democrats, who accused Specter of caving in to the Bush administration.

"We have abdicated our responsibility," shouted Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

"You have given up the store," complained Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in denouncing the move. "You're just walking away."

As much as the Bush administration is rightfully vilified for its efforts to concentrate power in the executive branch, its amazing how much help it gets from the branches that it is marginalizing.