Reply #11: Senate Panel Decides Against Eavesdropping Inquiry, for Now

[robcon]

What happened to Hagel and Hatch?

"The Senate Intelligence Committee decided today not to investigate President Bush's domestic surveillance program, at least for the time being.

"I believe that such an investigation is currently unwarranted and would be detrimental to this highly classified program," Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the panel, said this afternoon following a closed session.

While Mr. Roberts's announcement signaled that the administration's eavesdropping program would not be subject to Senate scrutiny, at least for the time being, there was no guarantee that the House would not go ahead with an inquiry of its own...

...Although Republicans outnumber Democrats, 8 to 7, on the committee, there had been some suspense over whether the panel would vote to investigate the operation. Two committee Republicans, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, are among lawmakers who have called for Congress to be given more information on the N.S.A.'s operation..."

In related news in the same article, wtf is this?

"Earlier today, the Senate handed the administration a victory as it voted, 96 to 3, not to hold up the Patriot Act to incorporate changes urged by Senator Russell D. Feingold, the act's most persistent critic.

Mr. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said he wants to make the Senate debate several more days on the bill, and under the Senate's rules he can do so. But today's vote signaled that, once Mr. Feingold has exhausted his moves, the act will indeed be renewed by the Senate before its scheduled expiration on March 10.