How Can You Be Really Sure Something Is "Bad Wrong" With Warrantless Wiretapping?
When former Attorney General John Ashcroft won't certify the program as being legal and current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tries to get him to do it in the dead of the night.
According to the Associated Press and The New York Times, in March 2004 Ashcroft was in the hospital suffering from pancreatitis and Deputy AG James Comey had been named Acting AG. Just before he went in the hospital, Ashcroft had told Comey that he had reservations about the legality of Administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Comey refused to sign off as to the program's legality.
Gonzales and then Chief of Staff Andy Card tried an end-run around Comey, going at night to Ashcroft's hospital room, where Ashcroft laid in bed in critical condition, to try to get him to sign the certification document. Ashcroft told them the problems he had with signing and that Comey, not he, had the power of the Attorney General.
The next day the program was reauthorized without the Justice Department attesting to its legality.
Gonzales has an interesting approach to what is legal. Shouldn't the White House Counsel, now Attorney General, know that Ashcroft had no authority to sign? Maybe he didn't and is just stupid as some people claim. I can only assume that he did know. What does it say about him that he tried to get Ashcroft to sign anyway? Nothing good. He could serve as a good model for the, by turns inept and deceiving, Administration toady character in the next Vince Flynn novel.As put by Becky at http://girlinshortshorts.blogspot.com/, Alberto Gonzales is One Sorry Ass Lawyer.
4 comments:
"You are who you hire".
One shitty lawyer hired by one shitty president.
It's true. The only people who work for Bush are those who think they can dominate him or those who think his loyalty to them will be worth (you fill in the blank).
I still think that rampant drug use is the best explanation for what's going on at the White House.
But as LH puts it, it is really hard to hire good help when you're a lousy boss.
Since I did this post, the latest news was that Comey and Mueller had told the President they were going to resign. He got them to stay by promising to make the wiretap program legal.
Wouldn't want it to get out that your own Justice Department was quiting because you were breaking the law.
It's amazing, but Alberto Gonzales has managed to make John Ashcroft look really, really good.
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