Rudy Giuliani makes nice with the farmers he offended, and Tagg Romney thinks his father’s conversions are “very very” convincing.
That and more in our our Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.
You’ve no doubt seen that the White House is now saying that “all options are on the table” with respect to Paul Wolfowitz’s future as president of the World Bank. Rich with irony and just not a good sign for Paul considering that’s the phrase this White House usually reserves for rogue states just before they get whacked.
Everybody’s talking this morning about former Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee in which he described the high speed race to get to get to the bedside of the stricken John Ashcroft before the arrival of then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. The Department of Justice, in the person of then-acting AG Comey, was refusing to sign off on the White House’s warrantless wiretapping program. And Gonzales and Andy Card wanted to see if they could get to the semi-conscious Ashcroft to overrule him.
In any case, no one seems to have the video of Comey’s actual testimony. Or at least they’re not showing his whole narration of what happened. But we do. We had a camera rolling yesterday. And we’re going to bring you lengthy excerpts later this morning on TPMtv. So stay tuned.
Today’s Must Read: how much blame does fall guy #2, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, deserve?
GOPers yuk it up about John Edwards’ haircut at last night’s debate. That and more in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.
Feingold amendment to cut funding for war goes down to defeat.
Update: A list of Dem Senators who voted against the measure is here.
I was just speaking with David Kurtz about the news coverage of yesterday’s Comey testimony. As David notes, both the Times and the Post suggest that this was a dispute among the president’s subordinates and that, in the Post’s words, the crisis was “resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card.” The Times says that the president eventually “intervened … to avert a crisis … and quelled the revolt.”
But I’m not sure that’s the only or really the most likely interpretation of what Comey said. In Comey’s testimony he actually says that he thinks it was the president himself who called the hospital to say Gonzales and Card were coming over. He hesitated and said he wasn’t certain of that. But his recollection seemed to be that it was the president.
His actual words are as follows …
Comey: Mrs. Ashcroft reported that a call had come through and that as a result of that call Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales were on their way to the hospital to see Mr. Ashcroft.
Schumer: Do you have any idea who that call was from?
Comey: (hesitation) I have some recollection that the call was from the president himself. But I don’t know that for sure. It came from the White House. And it came through and the call was taken in the hospital.
The logic of the testimony also suggests that the president sent Gonzales and Card over. Later, in response to the threatened resignations, the president backed Comey and the Justice Department and allowed them to make changes that would bring the program under legal or constitutional limits.
I think it’s a stretch to believe that the president was brought in as some neutral arbiter. A more logical interpretation is that the president dispatched Gonzales and Card to Ashcroft’s bedside and then later backed down.
Late Update: Marty Lederman who of course knows the legal and constitutional issues far better than I do has more on this here.
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE): Alberto Gonzales “should resign now.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee issues a subpoena for Karl Rove’s emails in the Justice Department’s possession, the Justice Department ignores the subpoena, and the senators get angry.