It's pretty clear that there is nothing to the accusations about Jane
Harman, neither about demanding a quid pro quo for helping the
indicted ex-AIPAC employees nor actually doing anything for the two at
all. Apparently, the Obama Justice Department is about to drop the
spying charges brought against them during the Bush administration
anyway. The espionage that they were supposed to have committed
turns out not to be espionage but rather casual talk on insignificant
topics with people friendly to the United States. Thwarted
prosecutors can always assuage their frustrations by leaking half-truths
to a gullible or over-hungry press, and this is what they have
done.
But there is one aspect to this scandal that has not been adequately
noted, and it is this: The United States constitution is structured
around the separation of powers. The fact that the National
Security Agency actually wire-tapped a sitting member of Congress--a
member of the House of Representatives and chair of the subcommittee
within whose purview the N.S.A. comes--is a scandal of the deepest
resonance. Except it has not resonated at all. Who approved
this tap?