The FBI raided still another congressman’s home, Renzi of Ariz., during the gonzo Gonzales hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The FBI is a little more careful about raiding the homes of sitting congressmen than they are your house or mine, you know.  Now, they’ve raided two GOP congressmen.  Do you think a Dept. of Justice filled with “loyal Bushies” does this just because they want to or because they just might turn up something good?  No.  They did this because they had no other choice. 

I’m no fan of Oklahoma’s U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn because he’s a nutball.  I gotta give him some “props”, though, for being man enough to hold his fire under press questioning and then telling Gonzales face to face to resign, to everyone’s amazement.  He made Lindsay Graham and Arlen Spector look like jerks for NOT doing the same thing.

Alberto (conveniently and rather ironically called “Fredo” by the president), meanwhile, says he prepared for a month for yesterday’s Senate hearing, but still said “I don’t recall” 50 times.  FIFTY TIMES!!!  The White House issued a statement that they were happy with his testimony.  WTF???

One of the most chilling bits of “news” to come out of the Senate hearings is that the Bush White House has something like 40 operatives who were given information by some 30 Dept. of Justice employees about criminal proceedings and other matters.  During the Clinton era, only four WH people were allowed to talk to 3 DOJ higherups about anything.  This is incredible to me as a lawyer because it’s so completely at odds with the idea of prosecutorial independence from political considerations.  It’s dangerous, every bit as dangerous to our democratic principles as the suspension of Habeas Corpus and wiretaps without judicial oversight. 

Gonzales testified repeatedly that “nothing improper” was done in the firings of 8 U.S. attorneys, but we must remember that this is the lawyer that believes in torture and the Nixonian idea that the “inherent” powers of the presidency are such that if the president does it, it is therefore legal.  Here, since the U.S. attorneys serve “at the pleasure” of the president, he can fire them for any reason he wants and it’s proper, even if his reasons strike at the foundations of liberty. 

There is no question in my mind that this is the most dangerous, incompetent and arrogant presidency to ever occupy 1600 Pennsylvania and there is no question in my mind that this is a failed presidency and likely the worst ever in our history.  Since that includes Buchanan, the gay president who ushered in the Civil War, that’s quite a failure.

Suz, I’m gonna take your money at the poker game, just to celebrate your birthday.