Glenn Greenwald hits another one out of the park:
Two of the three leading Republican candidates for President either embrace or are open to embracing the idea that the President can imprison Americans without any review, based solely on the unchecked decree of the President. And, of course, that is nothing new, since the current Republican President not only believes he has that power but has exercised it against U.S. citizens and legal residents in the U.S. — including those arrested not on the “battlefield,” but on American soil.
What kind of American isn’t just instinctively repulsed by the notion that the President has the power to imprison Americans with no charges? And what does it say about the current state of our political culture that one of the two political parties has all but adopted as a plank in its platform a view of presidential powers and the federal government that is — literally — the exact opposite of what this country is?
Worth reading the whole thing.
Some precious background information on Monica “buzz saw” Goodling, the Justice Department official who’s pleading the Fifth.
TPM Reader RM …
I was a bit surprised (and disappointed) that Tim Russert and Sen. Leahy let Sen. Hatch’s false “there isn’t a shred of evidence” of impropriety canard on MTP go unchallenged, when discussing purge-gate. A Republican former U.S. attorney testified to Congress (under oath, if I recall correctly) that two Republican congressmen called him in an attempt to influence his prosecutorial discretion to benefit one of those congressmen. That’s definitely at least a “shred” and more.
I didn’t see this myself. But Sen. Hatch (R-UT) has shown pretty clearly that he doesn’t have enough respect for the proper administration of the Justice Department to even be on the Judiciary committee. None of his Republican colleagues on the committee have been so exclusively focused on carrying the White House’s water on this one at the expense of the rule of law.
NBC’s Tom Aspell has a kick-butt report tonight on John McCain’s trip to Baghdad.
McCain declared earlier this week on CNN that the media was distorting the conditions on the ground in Iraq and that in fact you could stroll through many Baghdad neighborhoods, a rose-colored account that drew a quick rebuke from CNN’s Michael Ware.
Aspell reports that McCain’s “stroll” today through a Baghdad market was guarded by 100 American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships.
In his Dukakis-in-a-tank moment, McCain himself wore a bulletproof vest on his stroll.
The leakers sure have been quiet this weekend. Michael Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, spent almost six hours Friday being interrogated by the staffs of the House and Senate judiciary committees about the U.S. Attorney purge. Per the terms of the agreement for the interview of Elston, staff was not permitted to disclose what transpired behind closed doors. Still, it is remarkable that nothing about the Elston interview has leaked yet, so far as I can tell. I can’t help but contrast it with the GOP Congress of the Clinton years, which leaked like a sieve.
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA): “The Democrats’ honeymoon is fixing to end. It’s going to explode like an IED.”
Maybe he can go try that one out on some of the kids over at Walter Reed.
Today’s Must Read: the administration wonders if we can please get this U.S. attorney purge scandal over with now.
This just in from The Washington Post: Democratic victories bad for the Dems, good for the GOP.
Update: It gets worse. WaPo even ignored its own poll demonstrating the absurdity of its thesis.
Yesterday, Josh mentioned Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) memorable Meet The Press appearance, during which Hatch sounded off on the Democrats’ investigation of the U.S. attorney firings as if the last four weeks had never happened.
You can see it here. And for a bonus clip, we’ve added Hatch’s coy response to Russert’s question whether he would succeed Alberto Gonzales as AG.
Supreme Court rules against Bush administration in landmark global warming case.