In the wake of the Hamdan decision, I have often worried that Congress would simply cave in to the Bush administration’s executive power grab (see here, here, here, and here).  As was both feared and expected, that is precisely what they have done (see here for details).   Last week Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter proposed legislation that would essentially give Bush and his ilk the blank check they wanted.  In response to the proposed legislation, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero had the following to say: "The president could still choose to ignore the optional court oversight on the program…this new bill would codify the notion that the president is not bound by the laws passed by Congress or the Constitution. It would reward his abuse of power."  Given Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez’s previous suggestion that the Geneva Conventions are "quaint" (see here) and Judge Richard Posner’s recent suggestion that requiring warrants for snooping is "obsolete" in the wake of the so-called war on terror (see here), it is clear that the legal asylum is slowly being taken over by its wards.  Before long, our liberties and rights will be quaint and obsolete as well–all in the name of national security. Do none of our "elected" public officials have the courage to stop this madness?