"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was an age of wisdom, it was an age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…"
-- Charles Dickens

Congress has recessed for its President's Day break with little progress on deciding what to do about the NSA warrantless domestic spying program, however, a consensus seems to be building that puts Congress and the Bush Administration on a collision course.

Yesterday, Senator Roberts (R-KS), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, reversed his earlier position saying the NSA domestic spying should be brought under the authority of the FISA Court -- a move President Bush has strenuously argued is not necessary.

Senator Snowe (R-ME), another member of the Intelligence Committee, said Friday, "I think we do have to have judicial review, whether it's the FISA approach or not… it can't go on in perpetuity, and it can't be unfettered warrantless surveillance."

Robert's and Snowe's remarks would seem to lock Senator Specter (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, into his position that FISA Court authorization should be required to prove the domestic spying program is constitutional.

Last week, before taking this new tack, Senator Roberts cited the White House's vague commitment to provide greater disclosure and to cooperate on legislation affecting the secret domestic wiretapping as his justification for blocking a Committee vote on Senator Rockefeller's (D-WV) call for a thorough investigation.  Also, another Intelligence Committee member, Senator DeWine (R-OH), said he had White House support for his proposal to forget and forgive the past, to exempt the warrantless domestic spying from FISA, and to require monitoring of the program by a congressional subcommittee.

Also, last week, the Bush Administration slapped down the Senate Judiciary Committee request to have former AG Ashcroft and his former deputy, James Comey, testify about the origins of the secret spying program -- presumably because their testimony would reveal the deep division within the Justice Department about the spying program's legality from the very beginning.

In other installments of the Elephant Chronicles, Vice President Cheney's closed door strong-arming of the Republicans members of Congress has been described and Karl Rove's threats of political retribution against disloyal Republicans have been documented.

So, is the Bush Administration, after struggling mightily to keep the details of its spying under wraps and to prevent a test of the spying program's legality, watching its widely-publicized, heavy-handed tactics backfire?

In the House, Republicans on the Intelligence Committee have agreed to open an inquiry but are still debating how broad the inquiry should be. Senator Roberts said he had not spoken to Committee Chairman Hoekstra (R-MI).

The bottom line questions are: Can the Senate Republicans find a way around dealing with the legality of the four-year-old NSA warrantless domestic spying program while bringing it under the jurisdiction of the FISA Court? Or, are they sending a message to the White House that they don't care whether or not Bush is impeached?   

Last week -- it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

We have one more week to ponder Dickens.