CALVIN BALL IN THE SENATE

Remember when Hastert changed the members of the House Ethics Committee to protect Tom Delay?

Mr. Hastert showed open contempt for the House ethics process last year when he fired the Republican chairman of the ethics committee and ousted two Republican members after they did their duty and reprimanded Tom DeLay for three violations of standards. Mr. Hastert then appointed two members to the committee who had given large sums to the DeLay legal defense fund - when the main matter pending before the committee involved Representative DeLay.

From Glenn Greenwald:

Majority leader Frist, worried that the Senate Intelligence Committee might actually do some oversight over the NSA domestic tapping program, has threatened to change the membership of the committee. For 30 years, the Committee has had an equal number of members from each party and now WATB* Frist wants to make the composition as partisan as the other committees.

*© Atrios