Is there a man left inside of Arlen Specter?

Seriously. Put all the Republicans in Congress together in one room and see if they can scrape together a set of balls between them. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) claims he's going to hold hearings on Bush's illegal domestic spying later this month, but what kind of hearings will Specter hold? Potemkin hearings? Or something more real, investigative, and objective?

The White House today refused to say whether they'd cooperate with Specter's hearing. We know the White House refused to cooperate with the independent, bipartisan September 11 commission, and that commission was trying to figure out how to stop us all from getting nuked by Osama. Even so, the White House would have nothing to do with it. What makes anyone think the White House is going to cooperate with hearings investigating whether they did in fact violate federal law by wiretapping innocent American citizens in our country? Fat chance.

This is a White House that doesn't even think it's covered by the rule of law, that's why they spied on us illegally in the first place. Does Arlen Specter really think there's a bat's chance in hell they're going to recognize Congress' constitutionally-demanded oversight in this matter, at least without a fight?

And more importantly, is there enough of a real man, a real US Senator, left inside of Arlen Specter, after years of kow-towing to the far-right wing of his party just to save his job (what little of it is now left), to actually now DO his job and find out what the hell the administration is doing, whether it's legal, and what should be done about it?

Time will tell.

(And for you feminists out there I thought of asking if there was a woman left inside of Arlen Specter, but that didn't sound right...)