Greenwald explains our shiny new verb.
This is what we have been reduced to. A Senator actually celebrates as some sort of victory or “concession” the fact that the President will allow the constitutionality of his actions to be decided by a court. And we are told that although the President has been breaking the law for the last five years, that is all perfectly “understandable” and we should just all be grateful that the President is allowing us to pass a law which makes that conduct legal.
***Update***
To add, spectering refers to more than just an abject state of Congressional capitulation. That is called Robertsing, or Fristing if you add enthusiasm and subtract competence. Spectering specificially describes the act of angrily defending your principles up until the point when it actually matters, and then dropping them like a prom dress.
And before anybody tries sliding in alternative definitions, spectering does not involve doing creepy imitations of Emperor Palpatine. The word for that is ‘doing a creepy imitation of Emperor Palpatine.’