Another Domestic Spying Program?

We are all familiar with the famous hospital confrontation between Alberto Gonzales and John Ashcroft. Like everybody else who heard that story I thought it referred to the well known terrorist surveillance program. Alberto testified in 2006 that there hadn't been any controversy about that program within the DoJ. Last week the the Justice Department said it wouldn't retract or revise that testimony. So what gives. Well Monday the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Gonzales a letter demanding all correspondence pertaining to the hospital room confrontation. The last paragraph of that letter says

If you do not consider the surveillance program that was the subject of discussion during the hospital visit and other events that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey described in his May 15, 2007 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be covered by the requests made above, please provide all documents described in those requests relevant to that program, as well.

In other words, there might be another, completely unknown surveillance program out there. Gonzales and the highly politicized Republican DoJ is in charge of certifying that program. Feel safe? Me neither.

I am not sure loyal Bushies know the difference between al Qaeda, an editorial cartoonist or the Democratic party. Nor am I sure they care. For future reference only one of the three (al Qaeda) is an enemy of the state. Regardless of what Tom Delay or Karl Rove say the others are loyal Americans.

Laura McGann speculates over at TPMMuckraker. One of her readers who sounds pretty knowledgeable opines that the program is aimed at Internet traffic. He guesses the NSA can and does "read" every single email sent any where, by anybody, all of the time. Maybe they can find Karl Rove's missing emails?

We don't know, but it is interesting that George Bush who has proven himself utterly incompetent in every other respect, always gets his way with the Democratic Congressional leadership. It's like he reads their mail. Hummmmmmmm. I wonder.

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John Ashcroft and Condi Rice pre-9/11

I was mucking around trying to find comments made by John Ashcroft about civil liberties (all I could find were a couple of rants at Wash U) when I ran across this little comedy routine. The topic, the run up to 9/11, just isn't funny. It does contain a forgotten gem concerning John Ashcroft's personal priorities.



As I have said before, for John Ashcroft to object the Bush administration must have been up to something really bad.

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Comey's Testimony About The Gonzales/Ashcroft Hospital Exchange

This is shocking stuff. Ashcroft rises from his sick bed to say NO to Alberto Gonzales. It is pretty clear that Gonzales and Card were under a great deal of pressure when they went to the hospital. The initial call may have come from the President. Hummmmm, who could put that kind of pressure on Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card?

It is also clear that if the President hadn't relented that damn near all of the competent lawyers at the top of the DOJ and the FBI director would have walked rather than support the non-certified Domestic Surveillance Program Gonzales wanted certified. The President relented, but Ashcroft and Comey were replaced.

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CBS News Gets It--The Justice Department Has Been Gutted

Andrew Cohen of CBS News has delivered a special report on the dumbing down of the Justice Department. He writes that

career professionals at Justice — nonpartisan federal lawyers who make up the backbone of the department — have been squeezed out or otherwise marginalized over the past few years by ideological (and in many cases underachieving and intellectually weak) attorneys chosen more for their partisan views and political connections than for their ability to offer unbiased and sharp stewardship over the nation's federal laws.

He goes on to connect the dots from Paulose to the bogus Thompson case and concludes:

When you populate an office with ideologues and partisans and underachieving talent, you get an ideological and partisan office with underachieving results. And if there is any department in our federal system that can least afford to be ideological and partisan and underachieving, it is the Justice Department. This sorry state is true today, regardless of how and when the scandal over the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys is resolved. Of all the dismaying legal legacies left by this administration, this one surely ranks near the top.

A true must read for everybody.

Speaking of Rachel Paulose, it is being reported by the AP that

John Kelly, deputy director and chief of staff of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys in Washington, will spend "several days" here while the Minneapolis office undergoes a management transition.

Apparently Wunderkind Rachel has created such a mess even main justice realizes she needs adult supervision.

It looks like the mainstream media is beginning to understand the importance of a Department of Justice that works, and works hard, for all of us, not just the President's friends.

Related--Mash at docstrangelove.com makes the following observation in his post discussing the method Frist and the Republicans used to obtain Paulose's confirmation.

It seems to me if you are going to replace experienced and respected United States Attorneys with cronies of the Bush Administration with dubious qualifications, you do not take the rule of law very seriously. It seems to me that when US Attorney jobs are handed out as political rewards to cronies like ambassadorships have been in the past, the message sent to the populace is that politics triumphs the rule of law. It seems to me that is a direct assault on the United States Constitution. To the extent that the United States Senate has colluded with the Executive Branch in carrying out the politicization and trivialization of the Justice Department, we the citizens are being abandoned by your elected representatives in favor of political favors.

We are left with the embarrassing sight of a United States Attorney whose ego eclipses her qualifications. We are left with Rachel Paulose.

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