Dic

This morning "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that President Bush had personally decided to block the Justice Department ethics unit from examining the role played by government lawyers in approving the National Security Agency'’s domestic eavesdropping program." (New York Times.)

This is personal cover-up of illegal activity.

This is a crime.

But for Gonzales, who began his association with El Presidente as Bush's personal attorney, W. needs more, not less power:

Mr. Gonzales also told the committee that Congress should consider giving explicit approval to the kind of military commissions that the Supreme Court struck down last month.

He also urged Congress to enact a law that would strip federal courts of the ability to consider hundreds of challenges brought by terror suspects being held at the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In its ruling last month, the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration'’s argument that the law as currently written applied to the hundreds of pending cases.

Where's the outrage? Let's elect a Democratic Congress and see. Maybe we'll get straight-talking leadership like Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., per Murray Waas:

In a phone interview today, Hinchey said that he was "not terribly surprised by the news" that it was President Bush who stymied the Justice probe by denying the clearances. He questioned whether Bush took the action to protect his own attorney general from the inquiry.

"It was the president of the United States himself who prevented this investigation from going forward. In obstructing the investigation, he was protecting the people around him, and not protecting the Constitution," Hinchey said.

Or Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA who, with devastating politeness, tore apart hack lawyer Gonzales in the hearing today. (A fun watch thanks to Crooks and Liars -- see Gonzales lose and recover his unbearable smugness.)

Or Sen. Russell Feingold, D-WI, who makes it clear that the Emperor is, as we discussed yesterday, one naked bastard:

Hamdan underscores how this Administration has played fast and loose with the Constitution and the law, and why the President should be censured for authorizing the illegal wiretapping program, for misleading the public both before and after it was revealed, and for failing to inform the appropriate members of Congress about it, as required by law. We have to demand that this Administration, and this President, protect our Constitution and our values as we protect our country.

Fat chance to ever have Bush protect our Constitution when today Gonzales actually insisted that the president "has the inherent authority under the Constitution to engage in electronic surveillance without a warrant."

There's only one word for an elected leader who personally, personally blocks investigation into his own illegal actions. That's dictator, with emphasis on the first syllable.

Your voice will count -- let your Senator or Congressperson know you're angry, that you want them to defend the U.S. Constitution like they swore and like the oath Bush breaks daily.

And keep your eyes and ears open for what our other leaders, particularly our minority Party, does or tries to do in the weeks and months ahead.