Arlen Specter has developed a very cozy and familiar pattern with this White House.

After having been informed that the Administration is shredding the Constitution or existing legislation in a particularly egregious way, Specter first expresses dismay; then he blows his stack, very publicly; then he goes behind closed doors to whip the Executive Branch into line; and finally, with great fanfare, he gives the White House what it stole in the first place.

Specter begins his Op/Ed in the Post today by calling the Bush NSA wireless wiretapping program a “festering sore on our body politic,” and you would think that it would be hard to move rhetorically from festering sore to “a surveillance we can live with,” but never underestimate our man Arlen.

The logical key? Since Bush and Cheney have been adamant about acquiring power unilaterally, their willingness to submit any portion of the wiretapping to judicial review represents a major breakthrough.

It gets sillier. Check it out. And remember that Specter hails from a state trending increasingly Democratic and anti-Bush. Arlen has no intention of winding up another Santorum: out of touch, uniquely despised, and only months away from a new job oiling up cars at the local Jiffy Lube.