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"'It's the deepest kind of corruption,' said a recently retired longtime national security official who was closely involved in the AIPAC investigation, 'which was years in the making. It's a story about the corruption of government -- not legal corruption necessarily, but ethical corruption." In a fascinating (and depressing) must-read, Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein lays bare a byzantine corruption scandal involving AIPAC, the Dubya WH, and Jane Harman, former Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee and, some grumbling aside, basically a "team player" for Dubya during the illegal and warrantless wiretaps episode. (Irony of ironies, it appears Harman's misdeeds were caught on -- a court-approved -- wiretap.)

Talking Points Memo offers a handy timeline of the case here. Basically, on one level it's your basic political quid-pro-quo. Harman told an unnamed suspected Israeli agent that she would "waddle into" a federal espionage case then extant against two members of AIPAC and gum up the works somehow. In return, "the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi...to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections." (It didn't take: Pelosi instead chose Silvestre Reyes.) "Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, 'This conversation doesn't exist.'"

Sordid enough. But what's a mid-oughts scandal without the Dubya angle? After she had been caught on said wiretap, a federal investigation into Harman was approved...for awhile. But it seems Attorney General Alberto Gonzales now knew he had Harman in his pocket, and took advantage accordingly. "According to two officials privy to the events, Gonzales said he 'needed Jane' to help support the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed by the New York Times. Harman, he told [CIA Director Porter] Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections. And although it was too late to stop the Times from publishing now, she could be counted on again to help defend the program. He was right. On Dec. 21, 2005, in the midst of a firestorm of criticism about the wiretaps, Harman issued a statement defending the operation and slamming the Times, saying, 'I believe it essential to U.S. national security, and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities.'"

Not that I need to remind anyone here, but Dubya's use of illegal and warrantless wiretaps would, in more cases, be recognized as an impeachable offense. As it was, the Senate GOP (then in the catbird seat) held firm against hearings, and many of our congressional Dems -- Feingold, Leahy, and a few other lonely souls notwithstanding -- folded like a house of cards. Now, at least in the case of Harman, we know why.

Update: The NYT weighs in with their side, and it's TLDR'ed by TPM. And Salon's Glenn Greenwald has a good bit of snarky fun with Harman's recent "road to Damascus" moment regarding wiretaps.

"Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened." Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy calls for a "truth commission" to investigate Dubya-era abuses. "'We need to be able to read the page before we turn the page,' Leahy said. 'We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past." Ok, sounds grand...but perhaps we should stop perpetuating those abuses while we're at it.

"'Over that summer of 2002,' he writes, 'top Bush aides had outlined a strategy for carefully orchestrating the coming campaign to aggressively sell the war...In the permanent campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president's advantage ...What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.'" The other big political story of my move week: In a new political tell-all, former Dubya Press Secretary Scott McClellan turns on his former White House masters, accusing them of ginning up the case for war and lying outright to him about the Plamegate affair. "'Over time, as you leave the White House and leave the bubble, you're able to take off your partisan hat and take a clear-eyed look at things...I don't know that I can say when I started the book that it would end up where it was, but I felt at the end it had to be as honest and forthright as possible.'"

Welcome to the reality-based community, Scott. In the meantime, the White House is claiming McClellan was motivated by "sour grapes" (whatever that means -- why would he want to keep a gig he seemed to hate?) while other Dubya stalwarts, blindsided by the tome, have also gone on the attack. (But, don't fret -- of all people, McClellan knew what was coming.)

"Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion," said the memo written by John Yoo, who was then deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel." (Nor, apparently, does the Fourth Amendment apply.) An unsettling memorandum by Dubya stooge John Yoo which advocates both dictatorial rule and the legality of torture is released to the public, five years later. "'The whole point of the memo is obviously to nullify every possible legal restraint on the president's wartime authority,' Jaffer said. 'The memo was meant to allow torture, and that's exactly what it did.'"

More than anything, I'm reminded of Lincoln's remarks to the Indiana fourteenth: "'Whenever I hear anyone arguing over slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.'"

And, just in case anyone was under the impression that this sort of thing only happened in the dark days of 2003, witness Attorney General Mukasey last week getting publicly verklempt and making up 9/11 tales as he goes along, all to help preserve the NSA's warrantless wiretaps. At this point, Chuck Schumer has a lot to answer for.

"I think what I said was that we could not investigate or prosecute somebody for acting in reliance on a Justice Department opinion." The honeymoon is way over. In congressional testimony yesterday, Attorney General and theoretical straight-shooter Michael Mukasey announces he won't look into waterboarding, won't look into the warrantless wiretaps, and won't enforce the persecuted prosecutor contempt citations. His rationale for all this? If the Justice Department says it's ok, it's not illegal. "That would mean that the same department that authorized the program would now consider prosecuting somebody who followed that advice." Sigh...it's enough to make one miss Alberto Gonzales. Ok, not really.

"Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly 'high crimes and misdemeanors,' to use the constitutional standard." Not to be lost in the New Hampshire shuffle: Former Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern makes the case anew for Dubya's impeachment.

"The grim truth is, not much has changed. The Bush administration continues to limit our basic freedoms, conceal its own worst behavior, and insist that it does all this in order to make us more free." As a follow-up to her 2006 list of civil liberties violations, Slate's Dahlia Lithwick surveys The Bush Administration's Top 10 Stupidest Legal Arguments of 2007.

So much for those early, hopeful signs of independence...Attorney General Michael Mukasey tries to stonewall both a Congressional investigation and a Judicial investigation into the destroyed CIA tapes, arguing it would impede the Justice Department's own inquiry into the matter. "'We are stunned that the Justice Department would move to block our investigation,' Reps. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) and Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said in the [responding] statement. 'Parallel investigations occur all of the time, and there is no basis upon which the Attorney General can stand in the way of our work.'"

And, in somewhat related news, conservative judge Royce Lamberth, who earlier butted heads with the administration over FISA, rules that -- despite what Dick Cheney thinks on the matter -- White House visitor logs are public records, meaning visits from "Casino Jack" Abramoff and/or religious conservatives can no longer be kept secret on account of (dubious appeals to) "national security." Looks like it's win-some, lose-some for Dubya's imperial pretensions this week.

Having survived his evasions on waterboarding, new Attorney General Michael Mukasey looks to start his tenure in the right direction by reopening the internal investigation into warrantless wiretapping, the same investigation that collapsed in 2006 because Dubya would not grant the department the necessary security clearances. "H. Marshall Jarrett, the OPR's chief counsel, wrote in a letter to several lawmakers yesterday that lawyers in his office 'recently received the necessary security clearances and are now able to proceed with our investigation.'"

Another brick from the wall...A US District judge in New York declares that the FBI's secret use of "national security letters" (NSLs) under the Patriot Act is unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment and the separation of powers clause. "Marrero wrote in his 106-page ruling that Patriot Act provisions related to NSLs are 'the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values.'"

"We're going to push and push and push until some larger force makes us stop," Addington said at one point." The Terror Presidency, a new book by disgusted conservative and former Justice Department official Jack Goldsmith, further details the role played by Cheney henchman David Addington in this administration's rolling back of the rule of law."'We're one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious [FISA] court,' Goldsmith recalls Addington telling him in February 2004."

In the big news this past week, the wheels continue to come off over at Team Dubya. First Karl Rove jumped ship. Then Tony Snow told us he'll be off soon to make some money. And now, at long last, Alberto Gonzales has announced his resignation as Attorney General. "[W]ithin the past week, Justice aides and other officials said, Gonzales concluded that his credibility with Congress, his employees and the public was so shattered that he could not promise to remain through the end of Bush's term, as the White House chief of staff had demanded of Cabinet officers." Well, that, and there's the matter of continuing investigations into Gonzales, which the Dems say will continue (and should, since there's solid evidence he's perjured himself.) At any rate, good riddance, Gonzales. Like too many Dubya appointments, you've embarrassed the nation, with your justifications for torture and illegal wiretapping as much as with your tortured evasions and denials. Frankly, this should've happened months ago.

"'We're hugely disappointed with the Democrats,' said Caroline Fredrickson, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union. 'The idea they let themselves be manipulated into accepting the White House proposal, certainly taking a great deal of it, when they're in control -- it's mind-boggling.'" Um, why did we put these jokers in office again? Surely not to support such flagrantly unconstitutional intrusions as this. Folding completely to White House pressure, a Democratic Senate voted 60-28 and a Democratic House voted 227-183 to sanction Dubya's illegal wiretapping procedures. 'The bill would give the National Security Agency the right to collect such communications in the future without a warrant. But it goes further than that: It also would allow the monitoring, under certain conditions, of electronic communications between people on U.S. soil, including U.S. citizens, and people 'reasonably believed to be outside the United States,' without a court's order or oversight." The Dems' fallback position? They included a six-month sunset provision in the bill, so they'll get a chance to revisit and repeat their capitulation to the executive throne early next year. But can we expect any more leadership from the congressional Democrats then? Really, this is beyond disgraceful. "'The day we start deferring to someone who's not a member of this body...is a sad day for the U.S. Senate,' Feingold said. 'We make the policy -- not the executive branch.'"

"'He's a slippery fellow, and I think so intentionally,' said Richard L. Schott, a professor at the University of Texas's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. 'He's trying to keep the president's secrets and to be a team player, even if it means prevaricating or forgetting convenient things.'" In a front-page story, the WP surveys Alberto Gonzales' decade-long history of evasions and forgetfulness at the service of Dubya: "Whether Gonzales has deliberately told untruths or is merely hampered by his memory has been the subject of intense debate among members of Congress, legal scholars and others who have watched him over the years. Some regard his verbal difficulties as a strategic ploy on behalf of a president to whom he owes his career; others see a public official overwhelmed by the magnitude of his responsibilities." So, liar or idiot...take your pick. (My money's on liar.)

"In grasping and exercising presidential powers, Cheney has dulled political accountability and concocted theories for evading the law and Constitution that would have embarrassed King George III...As Alexander Hamilton advised in the Federalist Papers, an impeachable offense is a political crime against the nation. Cheney's multiple crimes against the Constitution clearly qualify." Former Reagan Assistant Attorney General Bruce Fein makes the conservative case for Dick Cheney's impeachment in Slate.

"He's saying he's above the law...It just seems to me this is arrogant and shows bad judgment." Also in related news, historians probably shouldn't expect a similar classified document dump a quarter-century from now: Word leaks from a congressional committee that Cheney has refused to comply with the National Archives in preserving classified documents over the past four years and even tried to abolish the office responsible for enforcing the law. "Cheney's office declined to discuss what it called internal matters...The Justice Department confirmed yesterday that it is looking into the issue." Another day, another imperial prerogative attempted by these lawless yokels in the White House.

Think I'm being shrill? Ok, here's another: After listening to former Attorney General John Ashcroft discuss internal differences over Dubya's illegal surveillance program yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-3 to issue subpoenas for White House and Justice Department documents regarding the eavesdropping system. "The White House made no move to comply."

It's not just Karl. Newly released information finds that as many as 88 officials in the Dubya White House have been (illegally) using RNC e-mail addresses as a back-door way to discuss official business off the record. "'As a result of these policies, potentially hundreds of thousands of White House e-mails have been destroyed, many of which may be presidential records,' the report said."

"James B. Comey, the straight-as-an-arrow former No. 2 official at the Justice Department, yesterday offered the Senate Judiciary Committee an account of Bush administration lawlessness so shocking it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source." By way of Medley, the WP blanches at a ridiculous attempt by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to secure warrantless wiretaps against the will of the Justice Department. "Having failed, they were willing to defy the conclusions of the nation's chief law enforcement officer and pursue the surveillance without Justice's authorization. Only in the face of the prospect of mass resignations -- Mr. Comey, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and most likely Mr. Ashcroft himself -- did the president back down."

"Renzi -- now, was that the guy with the skeezy land deal? Or the woman Paul Wolfowitz promoted?" To help keep track of them all, Slate offers a handy illustrated guide to GOP scandals.

"'We concluded that many of the problems we identified constituted serious misuse of the FBI's national security letter authorities,' Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said in the report." A Justice Department audit finds the FBI has been systematically misusing NSA letters to procure personal information without a court order, prompting a mea culpa from director Robert Mueller and the prospect of possible hearings into the matter. "'It appears that the administration has used these powers without even the most basic regard for privacy of innocent Americans,' [Sen. Dick] Durbin said in a statement."

Good riddance to the do-nothing 109th Congress, which wheedled its way into the history books last weekend. (And sayonara also to Donald Rumsfeld, who closed up shop yesterday.) A word of warning to the Dubya White House: Don't expect the 110th to play as nice...

"We should see the administration's bill for what it is: a shattering assault on our constitutional system of checks and balances. It seeks to inaugurate an age of presidential supremacy over fundamental rights, without effective control by Congress or the courts. The Senate should reject it decisively when it comes to the floor in the coming weeks." Yale professor Bruce Ackerman decries Dubya's recent wiretapping bill, which recently passed out of committee on a party-line vote. (Thanks, Arlen.)

"Despite the Administration's stonewalling, the Judiciary Committee, which knows even less about the program than the Intelligence Committee, today approved legislation that would not only legalize a program that the Committee does not understand but would also completely gut the FISA law...Expanding executive power at the request of a president who has shown such deep disrespect for the rule of law is exactly the wrong thing to do." Checks and balances? Bah, humbug. At Dubya's mandate -- and despite Democratic attempts to limit the damage -- Spineless Specter and the GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee approve legislation legalizing the NSA's warrantless wiretap program. As the ACLU summed it up: "Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee acted as a rubber stamp for the administration's abuse of power." For shame.

After fierce debate among the neocons, Dubya comes clean about the CIA's secret prisons (outed by the Post last November) and moves the detainees held therein to Gitmo. But don't think this moment of clarity means King George is playing it straight just yet: He's also asking Congress to sidestep recent court decisions and grant him power to continue wiretapping without warrants and to torture alleged evildoers with impunity. And even moderate Republicans and military lawyers have issues with his recent attempts to deny suspected terrorists due process.

Update: Slate's Dahlia Lithwick has more: "The speech teemed with all the rhetorical wizardry you might expect of a do-over. Bush justified torture and extraordinary rendition while denying that they exist. He stuck a fork in the eye of the Supreme Court while agreeing to be bound by the majority's decision. He conceded that Congress should play a role in creating military tribunals while demanding that it greenlight his plan."

"[P]ublic interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of the Constitution." In a strongly worded decision that minces no words about the Dubya administration's "obviously" unwarranted powergrab, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor finds the NSA warrantless wiretaps blatantly unconstitutional. "It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights...There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all 'inherent powers' must derive from that Constitution." Elsewhere in the opinion, Taylor found that the wiretap program "violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III." Update: As per the norm, the GOP try to shoot the messenger.

"This report raises serious concerns crucial to the survival of our democracy...If left unchecked, the president's practice does grave harm to the separation of powers doctrine, and the system of checks and balances that have sustained our democracy for more than two centuries." Then, again, I could be sold on the merits of bar associations...if they continue to call out Dubya for trampling on our Constitution.

"If another nation's leader adopted such positions, the United States would be quick to condemn him or her for violating fundamental tenets of the rule of law, human rights, and the separation of powers. But President Bush has largely gotten away with it, at least at home, for at least three reasons. His party holds a decisive majority in Congress, making effective political checks by that branch highly unlikely. The Democratic Party has shied away from directly challenging the president for fear that it will be viewed as soft on terrorism. And the American public has for the most part offered only muted objections. These realities make the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, issued on the last day of its 2005-2006 term, in equal parts stunning and crucial." In related news, as seen at both Salon and Mother Jones (as well as the New York Review of Books), author and law professor David Cole underlines the importance of the Hamdan decision in preserving the rule of law and throttling Dubya's unchecked power grabs of late.

"[I]f Specter's bill prevails, it will amount to a White House masterstroke, precisely what James Madison had in mind when he described the dangers of unchecked rule by one branch of government: 'the very definition of tyranny.'" Having read the legislation in full, author and wiretap expert Patrick Radden Keefe discovers, perhaps not surprisingly, that Specter's recent NSA "compromise" is a complete capitulation to executive power. And, in very related news, file this under "repeated injuries and usurpations": Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified under oath this week that it was Dubya's personal decision to close down the Justice Department's probe into the NSA's warrantless wiretaps (the one, you may recall, that couldn't get the security clearances to do its job.)

Meanwhile, in another recent reversal -- one likely precipitated by both the Hamdan case and pending lawsuits by the ACLU and others -- the Dubya White House agrees to a deal put forth by Arlen "paper tiger" Specter that would put the NSA warrantless wiretaps to a constitutional review by the FISA court. But the trick, as many Dems have pointed out, is under this deal the FISA court would only do a general review of the wiretap program, rather than conduct the individual case-by-case reviews that the law has always demanded: "Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) criticized the agreement, saying he will oppose 'any bill that would grant blanket approval for warrantless surveillance of Americans, particularly when this administration has never explained why it believes that current law allowing surveillance of terrorist suspects is inadequate.'"

Listen up, Cornyn: "There never was a more vicious or insidious doctrine announced for the consideration of a free people than the doctrine that our constitution or any part of it is suspended during a state of war. Our constitution was made for war as well as peace. Equally vicious is the doctrine that you must disregard the guarantees of the constitution and trample upon our civil liberties in order to save the constitution...[W]e can never get anywhere if we resort to the theory that the minority has no rights which the majority is bound to respect or that the constitutional rights of the citizen must give way to some supposed emergency. I think the greatest service the true American can render to the cause of orderly liberty is to demonstrate in this critical situation that we can deal with every confronting situation and meet every emergency without violating or disregarding to the individual citizen any of his rights under our constitution. If we have reached the point where we cannot take care of the situation without resorting to arbitrary methods, to undefined official discretion, then the enemies of this government may well say that our system has proved a failure." -- Sen. William E. Borah, "Letter to Austin Simmons," January 21, 1920.

"'You have given up the store,' complained Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in denouncing the move. 'You're just walking away.'" Playing true to form, Arlen Specter folds yet again and reverses his earlier promise to make phone companies testify about their role in the NSA's recent data-mining. "The senator from Pennsylvania acknowledged his reversal was forced upon him by his Republican colleagues in a private session prior to the afternoon hearing."

"'Having been blacklisted from working in television during the McCarthy era, I know the harm of government using private corporations to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans. When government uses the telephone companies to create massive databases of all our phone calls it has gone too far.'" Author, oral historian, and American institution Studs Terkel is one of six plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against AT&T for their complicity in the NSA master phone database.

"Unlike so many of the hacks placed in charge of important government agencies during the past six years, Hayden possesses powerful qualifications for the job...By the admittedly dismal standards of the Bush administration, then, Hayden is an unusually good appointment." As former NSA head and probable CIA director-to-be Michael Hayden navigates the confirmation process (leaving all his Snoopgate-related answers for the secret session), he procures an endorsement from an unlikely source: Salon's Joe Conason: "[D]espite his military uniform, Hayden is likely to be more independent of the Pentagon and the White House than Goss was. It will help that, unlike Goss, he actually knows what he's doing." Hmmm. Update: Hayden is through committee on a 12-3 vote. (Feingold, for his part, voted no: "Our country needs a CIA Director who is committed to fighting terrorism aggressively without breaking the law or infringing on the rights of Americans."

Even more Snoopgate fallout: As last week's bombshell story in USA Today makes the covers of the major newsweekies, two ABC reporters say their calls to sources are being monitored. "A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources. 'It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,' the source told us in an in-person conversation."

"In defending the previously disclosed program, Bush insisted that the NSA was focused exclusively on international calls. 'In other words,' Bush explained, 'one end of the communication must be outside the United States.' As a result, domestic call records -- those of calls that originate and terminate within U.S. borders -- were believed to be private. Sources, however, say that is not the case." USA Today unleashes a firestorm in Washington today after the paper uncovers a NSA plan to "create a database of every call ever made." (Q&A) "With access to records of billions of domestic calls, the NSA has gained a secret window into the communications habits of millions of Americans. Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program, the sources said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information."

Dubya's response? As expected, we're only going after the bad people. Nevertheless, Dems and even moderate Republicans in Congress are livid over these new revelations, to the point of possibly spiking the Hayden bid for CIA chief. For his part, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Arlen Specter says he'll chair hearings on the matter, but, really, what else is new? For all his tough talk in the past, so far he's remained a paper tiger when it comes to curbing Dubya's imperial pretensions. Still, one would think this stunning leak might breathe new life into Sen. Feingold's censure resolution, as well as strong congressional legislation that might finally help to redress this administration's startling contempt for civil liberties. After all abuse and torture, secret and/or illegal gulags, indefinite detentions without cause or charges, extraordinary rendition, and warrantless wiretaps are all one thing...but now you're hitting most Americans where they live. Update: Or not -- A new poll shows Americans surprisingly sanguine about NSA data-mining. Update 2: Or are they?

"This administration thinks they can just violate any law they want, and they've created a culture of fear to try to get away with that. It's up to us to stand up to them." In very related news, the Justice Department closes its investigation into the NSA warrantless wiretaps because the NSA denied them the necessary security clearances. "We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program...Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and therefore have closed our investigation."

Dubya officially nominates Michael Hayden to replace Porter Goss at CIA, despite bipartisan criticism of Hayden's military background. "U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said, 'This appointment...signals that we are not that concerned about having an independent intelligence community independent of the Department of Defense.'" Nevertheless, some top Dems, including the House Intelligence Committee's Jane Harman and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, have indicated that they're both ok with the pick and will, likely, avoid the NSA wiretaps issue like the plague during the hearings.

As y'all have probably heard by now, controversial CIA chief Porter Goss was forced to quit his post yesterday, no doubt to much rejoicing at Langley. "As the normally mild-mannered Ivo Daalder, a former staff member at the National Security Council under Bill Clinton, put it, 'Porter Goss was such an absolute disaster for the agency and our national security that his departure comes not a day too soon.'" Goss chalked up his abrupt dismissal as "just one of those mysteries," but other reports suggest the real reason -- bribes, poker, and prostitutes -- is less mysterious than it is just plain unsavory. "'It's all about the Duke Cunningham scandal,' a senior law enforcement official told the Daily News in reference to Goss' resignation." As for his replacement, Dubya has tapped former NSA chief Michael Hayden, which may mean the warrantless wiretaps may soon get another hearing in the Senate.

"'Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment.' Specter, R-Pennsylvania, told the panel. 'If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.'" Fed up with White House stonewalling regarding the illegal NSA wiretaps (and likely emboldened by Dubya's grotesquely bad poll numbers), Arlen Specter threatens to cut off the program's funding.

"'We know the president broke the law,' Leahy said. 'Now we need to know why.'" With the Dems -- except for Feingold and Leahy -- AWOL yet again, the Senate Judiciary Committee debates Feingold's censure resolution and hears testimony from former Nixon counsel John Dean, who is back before Congress for the first time since Watergate. Said Feingold at one point: "If you want the words 'bad faith' in [the censure resolution], let's put them right in, because that's exactly what we have here...The lawbreaking is shocking in itself, but the defiant way that the president has persisted in defending his actions with specious legal arguments and misleading statements is part of what led me to conclude that censure is a necessary step." Said the rest of the committee Dems (Kennedy, Biden, Kohl, Feinstein, Schumer, Durbin): Nothing.

"'I haven't read it,' demurred Barack Obama (Ill.). 'I just don't have enough information,' protested Ben Nelson (Neb.)." As Senator Tom Harkin signs on as a co-sponsor of Russ Feingold's censure resolution -- which, word has it, is also now backed by John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, and Robert Menendez -- the Post's Dana Milbank watches the rest of our party head for the hills. "Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) brushed past the press pack, shaking her head and waving her hand over her shoulder. When an errant food cart blocked her entrance to the meeting room, she tried to hide from reporters behind the 4-foot-11 Barbara Mikulski (Md.). 'Ask her after lunch' offered Clinton's spokesman, Philippe Reines. But Clinton, with most of her colleagues, fled the lunch out a back door as if escaping a fire."

"This is clearly more serious than anything President Clinton was accused of. It is reminiscent of what President Nixon was not only accused of doing but was basically removed from office for doing." As Senator Feingold continues his lonely push for a censure resolution, the GOP go into full "soft on terror" attack mode, while most Dems -- of course -- commence to hemming and hawing. "Reid...commended [Feingold] 'for bringing this to the attention of the American people. We need a full and complete debate on this NSA spying.' Reid and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) told reporters they wanted to examine the resolution before endorsing or rejecting it." The world is watching, Dems: Get up and fight!

"This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors....We, as a Congress, have to stand up to a president who acts like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were repealed on Sept 11." On This Week, Senator Feingold calls for a censure of Dubya for, "openly and almost thumbing his nose at the American people," continuing the NSA warrantless wiretaps. (The censure resolution is here.) Catkiller Frist -- flush from his straw poll win over the weekend -- responded by calling the censure a "terrible, terrible signal" to give the evildoers. It's "terrible" to show respect for the rule of law? Get real. It's about time somebody in the AWOL Senate stood up to this administration's repeated abuses of power. Update: Feingold writes more on the censure. (Via Medley.)

By way of a friend, the State Department releases its mandated yearly human rights report for 2005 (here), finding cause for alarm in Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela, Burma, North Korea, Belarus and Zimbabwe and (surprise, surprise) progress in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report doesn't delve into human rights violations here at home (although China tries to fill that gap in response every year), but it does unequivocally state -- in bold, no less -- that "countries in which power is concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers tend to be the world's most systematic human rights violators." Hey y'all might be on to something. Deadpans the head of Amnesty International: "The Bush administration's practice of transferring detainees in the 'war on terror' to countries cited by the State Department for their appalling human rights records actually turns the report into a manual for the outsourcing of torture."

"'The committee is, to put it bluntly, basically under the control of the White House through its chairman,' [Senator Jay Rockfeller (D-WV)] told reporters. 'At the direction of the White House, the Republican majority has voted down my motion to have a careful and fact-based review of the National Security Agency's surveillance eavesdropping activities inside the United States.'" Once again, on a party line vote and at the behest of Chairman Pat Roberts (by way of the Dubya administration,) the GOP members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence vote down an investigation into the NSA warrantless wiretaps....meaning presumed committee moderates Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel buckled under pressure again.

And, speaking of buckling under pressure, the House pass the Patriot Act 280-138. "'I rise in strong opposition to this legislation because it offers only a superficial reform that will have little if any impact on safeguarding our civil liberties,' [Congressman Dennis] Kucinich said...'Congress has failed to do its job as a coequal branch of government...The administration's attack on our democracy has to be reigned in.'"

"I did not and could not address...any other classified intelligence activities." In a letter clarifying his recent Senate testimony on the NSA wiretaps, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hints at a broader warrantless spying program than has yet been acknowledged. "'It seems to me he is conceding that there are other NSA surveillance programs ongoing that the president hasn't told anyone about,' said Bruce Fein, a government lawyer in the Nixon, Carter and Reagan administrations." Update: Gonzales tells Jane Harman that's all there is.

Arlen Specter, who has clearly given up on his oversight and impeachment talk of a few short weeks ago, tries at least to bring future NSA wiretap inquiries before the FISA court. Meanwhile, the White House nixes a call by 18 House Dems to appoint an independent counsel to delve into the NSA matter, opting instead for more of their patented Shoot-the-Messenger defense: "'I think that where these Democrats who are calling for this ought to spend their time is on what was the source of the unauthorized disclosure of this vital, incredible program in the war on terrorism,' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. 'I really don't think there is any basis for a special counsel. ... But the fact that this information was disclosed about the existence of this program has given the enemy some of our playbook.'"

The WP surveys the recent White House campaign to prevent Senate oversight into the NSA wiretaps. "Hagel and Snowe declined interview requests after the meeting, but sources close to them say they bridle at suggestions that they buckled under administration heat." Well, then, Senators, what do you want to call it?

"It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism...The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them...let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield." -- George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796.

"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." -- Abraham Lincoln, "Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment" (March 17, 1865)

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." -- George Washington

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!" -- Abraham Lincoln, "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin" (September 30, 1859)

"[T]errorism is not the only new danger of this era. Another is the administration's argument that because the president is commander in chief, he is the 'sole organ for the nation in foreign affairs.'" From the Right, George Will makes the conservative case against Dubya's "monarchical" pretensions regarding the NSA wiretaps. (Via Cliopatria.)

"Treason is a strong word, but not too strong to characterize the situation in which the Senate is the eager, resourceful, and indefatigable agent of interests as hostile to the American people as any invading army could be." As feared -- the Senate GOP, including supposed "moderates" Snowe and Chafee -- vote down hearings into the NSA wiretaps. And also as feared, the Senate Dems completely collapse on the Patriot Act renewal, joining the Republicans to end the Feingold filibuster 96-3. (Only Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Jim Jeffords (I-VT) sided with Russ.) So, with the Senate in effect abdicating its responsibilty as an independent and coequal branch of government, it looks like it'll be up to the judiciary to check Dubya's executive powergrab.

"If some kind of inquiry would be beneficial to getting a resolution to this issue, then sure, we should look at it. But if the inquiry is just some kind of a punitive inquiry that really is not focused on finding a way out of this, then I'm not so sure that I would support that." Bad news for congressional oversight and the rule of law: After an "all-out" campaign of White House arm-twisting, crucial Senate Republicans -- including Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel -- appear on the verge of folding up the tent on the proposed NSA hearings. The critical vote will come tomorrow, but it's iffy. "Two committee Democrats said the panel -- made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats -- was clearly leaning in favor of the motion last week but now is closely divided and possibly inclined against it."

"'I can't believe I'm in a conservative hall listening to him say [Bush] is off course trying to defend the United States,' Sorcinelli fumed." As a result of his questioning Dubya's NSA powergrab, right-wing civil libertarian Bob Barr finds himself persona non grata at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Similarly in the doghouse with the powers-that-be is right-wing pollster Frank Luntz, due to a longstanding feud with John Boehner -- Luntz backed the wrong horse in '98. And, speaking of Boehner, the new Majority Leader is apparently causing mild tremors along another GOP faultline, the one between evangelicals and pro-business stooges. (Boehner numbers among the latter.) Could this all be the prelude to a '06 crack-up of '94 proportions?

As critics in both parties poke more holes in Dubya's flimsy NSA defense, Republican congresswoman Heather Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, calls for a "complete review" of Dubya's wiretapping program.

The Specter hearings into the illegal NSA wiretaps begin, and, so far despite Specter's tough talk on Sunday, they've been pretty much a sideshow. For one, as they did with Big Oil, the GOP ensured by a 10-8 party-line vote that Gonzales didn't have to testify under oath. For another, Gonzales has been falling back on the ridiculous Article 2 defense and saying little of import as of yet. Still, at least Republicans like Specter and Lindsey Graham are joining Feingold and others in calling out the administration's dubious rationale for the Imperial Presidency, so perhaps these hearings may be of some service yet. Update: As the NYT points out, we've been here before. Update 2: Dahlia Lithwick is not amused.

"Not since 1994 has the party in power -- in this case the Republicans -- faced such a discouraging landscape in a midterm election...The result is a midterm already headed toward what appears to be an inevitable conclusion: Democrats are poised to gain seats in the House and in the Senate for the first time since 2000. The difference between modest gains (a few seats in the Senate and fewer than 10 in the House) and significant gains (half a dozen in the Senate and well more than a dozen in the House) is where the battle for control of Congress will be fought." The WP previews the midterm electoral landscape. Excellent news...but still, if anyone's shown an amazing capacity to spin gold into straw, it's our current crop of Dems.

With a tip-off from the Progressive Patriots Fund, I had the opportunity yesterday to catch Sen. Russ Feingold speak on the Patriot Act and the NSA wiretapping scandal over at Cardozo Law School. (Their pics are a lot better than mine -- I forgot to charge my batteries, and thus only got in 2 or 3 shots before my camera died on me.) And how was he? Well, all-in-all, he came off as a convincing candidate for the election ahead, as well as an impressive, informed, and personable fellow. To be honest, I found his remarks a bit lawyerly (then again, he's a lawyer speaking before a law school, so that's not really a fair criticism), but, taken in full, he seemed a committeed progressive and a refreshingly candid leader, the type of dynamic, independent thinker the Senate should be teeming with, if the system came anywhere close to working these days.



The gist of Sen. Feingold's remarks was thus: Al Qaeda is the central threat facing America and has been since 9/11. Yet, instead of bringing the nation together to eliminate this terrorist organization, the Dubya White House has chosen time and time again to endanger our national security and compromise our most fundamental American values for their own ideological or power-hoarding purposes. (Iraq, Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, secret gulags, you name it.) Along those lines and as we now all know, the Patriot Act, which only Feingold voted against in 2001, contains some terrible provisions therein, the most notorious example affecting Middle America being Section 215 (which gives law enforcement, among other things, the right to see what you've been reading.)

Yet, as per the norm, Dubya has refused to admit that it's even possible that something might be wrong with the Patriot Act now that it's up for renewal -- only that it's necessary to defeat the evildoers and that any microscopic change in the statute could rend the fabric of freedom irreparably. (Despite this now-somewhat hoary ploy, Feingold and others have succeeded in blocking a permanent blanket extension for now, as y'all know if you've been visiting here lately.) And, of course, Dubya has taken this same tack of obfuscation and fear-mongering to cover up his brazen wiretapping power-grab -- which, according to Congress's own research arm, broke at least two laws and counting.

Again, this story is not news to many Dems out there, but Feingold laid it out in clear, comprehensible, and systematic fashion. (The only "breaking news" made was the Senator announcing this letter to Gonzales, asking him why he, in effect, lied to the Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearings about the NSA wiretaps.) And he had some good lines throughout -- In reply to Rove's ridiculous claim that Dems were "pre-9/11", Feingold quipped that the GOP suffered from a "pre-1776" mentality these days. (He also retold the recent Patrick Henry exchange.) To be honest, I'd liked to have heard more in this vein -- In terms of breaking down the legislative legerdemain and legal issues at hand, Feingold was superb. But I thought the speech needed more narrative sweep and rhetorical grandeur, more explanation of why this battle matters so much to the workings of the republic. He doesn't have to turn into Robert Byrd overnight. Still, I thought the remarks could have benefited from more dramatic heft and historical resonance: Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Lincoln, Wilson...they're all relevant here. (Then again, as I said above, I was an historian sitting in a room full of lawyers, so I was a tougher sell than most.)

Along those lines, if there was a problem with this presentation, it's that the Senator, while clearly outraged, at times seemed much less livid about all this than many in the audience, who occasionally sounded ready to hoist the black flag. (In fact, many will no doubt be happy to hear that Feingold was asked twice "why Democrats are so lame." As he noted (and as the blogosphere can attest this week), if a crowd in New York City is this irate with the party, the Dems might be in serious trouble nationwide in November. Still, he also emphasized that the Democrats could be more effective fighters if they actually controlled a house of Congress -- You can't hold hearings if you're in the minority.

In terms of other questions, Feingold said he supports and will take part in the very late-developing (and now already defunct) Alito filbuster (Roll Call.) In fact, he thought the Dems made a crucial mistake in capitulating to the original "Gang of 14" compromise, arguing cogently that Dems have seen nothing for it and may well have had the votes to win Catkiller's game of nuclear chicken. Since Casino Jack and lobbying reform seemed too big a subject to address competently in the time allotted, I asked him a question about his thoughts on the NYT decision to spike the NSA story for a year, his general view of the mass media's performance in serving as a check on these types of executive abuses, and ('cause it seemed apropos) his thoughts on the burgeoning blogosphere's role in all this. He didn't really go after the Times decision, and said that, in terms of the recent Patriot Act debate, he thought the press had actually done an ok job. Regarding blogs, he called the Internet "a miracle for populist politics," which was a good enough soundbite that everyone in my row dutifully wrote it down at the same time.

And, of course, Sen. Feingold was asked -- a couple of times -- whether or not he was running for President in 2008. Naturally, he played it coy -- After all, we still have just under two years before the Iowa caucus. But, for what it's worth, I was impressed by him -- He's not a first-class emoter like Edwards or Clinton, of course. Instead, he comes across as a highly intelligent, capable, and nuanced thinker, a la Bradley, Kerry, or Gore on his better days. But unlike those three, he also seemed much more comfortable in his own skin, more naturally himself at the podium, and -- most importantly -- more content to play the maverick if his lefty principles dictate thus. (Although, as I said, I'd like to see him tone down the lawyer-ese and rev up more Wellstone-ish fire if he does make a White House run.) I suppose there's a small, bordering-on-infinitesimal chance that Rodham Clinton, Biden, Warner, or someone else might drop all the "New Democrat" protective camouflage this time around and begin loudly and undefensively proclaiming progressive principles to the Heavens. But, until that unlikely event, my candidate in the 2008 Democratic primary is Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. (Update: 1776 link via Medley.)

"This extremity of Bush's position emerges most clearly in a 42-page document issued by the Department of Justice last week. As Andrew Cohen, a CBS legal analyst, wrote in an online commentary, 'The first time you read the "White Paper," you feel like it is describing a foreign country guided by an unfamiliar constitution.' To develop this observation a bit further, the nation implied by the document would be an elective dictatorship, governed not by three counterpoised branches of government but by a secretive, possibly benign, awesomely powerful king." As Dubya embarks on another weeklong campaign of fear and distortion (as per standard Rovian operating procedure), Slate's Jacob Weisberg gapes at the audacity of Bush's brazenly unconstitutional ploy for power. "[I]n his white paper, Bush as much as declares: 'I determine what my words mean and I alone determine what yours mean, too.'...Bush's message to the courts, like his message to Congress, is: Make way, subjects."

In related news, Senate opposition to the Patriot Act -- All the Dems and only four measly Republicans -- seems to be holding firm for now, meaning that the old, unrevised version will remain in effect for the time being. Of course, if King George actually possessed the powers he's arrogantly allocated to himself of late, there would be no need for a Senate vote on the Patriot Act at all. Hopefully, Arlen Specter understands the danger in these breathtaking assertions of unconstitutional power by Dubya, and will make his forthcoming Senate Judiciary hearings count for something. After all, given this administration's blatant power grab, it's no longer hyperbole to say that our republic is at stake.

"Judge Alito's record and his testimony have led me to conclude that his impulse to defer to the executive branch would make him a dangerous addition to the Supreme Court at a time when cases involving executive overreaching in the name of fighting terrorism are likely to be such an important part of the Court's work." Although the Senate Judiciary Dems (including Feingold) lined up against him, Sam Alito made it out of committee on a 10-8 party-line vote. Now, with his nomination before the full Senate, and with Nebraska Dem Ben Nelson joining the GOP majority, it seems, unfortunately, that the "worst nightmare of liberal democrats" will come to pass, and Alito will join the Roberts court. (For what it's worth, Nelson wasn't alone in his apostasy: Santorum challenger Bob Casey also came out for the judge.) Well, let's hope Justice Alito takes a less forgiving look at executive encroachment than has Judge Alito. (Casey link via Medley.) Update: While the NYT says filibuster, Dems Robert Byrd and Tim Johnson back Alito. (Of course, if the NYT hadn't sat on the NSA story for a year, perhaps we could have nipped Alito in the bud back in November 2004.)

""The curtain got pulled aside, and there's not even a wizard behind it...these people are incompetent." As you probably heard, Karl Rove emerged from hiding to offer his blueprint for Republican resurgence in 2006. Yep, you guessed it: terror, terror, terror, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, garnished with a smattering of tax cuts. But, to their credit, it sounds like Dems are relishing this coming fight, with Intelligence Committee Dem Jane Harman pushing back once more on the illegal wiretaps, and, in keeping with the recent trend of presidential also-rans finding their voice, John Kerry taking off the gloves on the Sunday shows. "Osama bin Laden is going to die of kidney failure before he's killed by Karl Rove and his crowd."

"While it's true that O'Connor has tended to vote with the majority more frequently than Kennedy, and that she has done so in some big 5-4 decisions, it's also true that in other extremely contentious areas, it is Kennedy, not O'Connor, who has swung the court leftward." As Dem begin to announce their no votes for Alito (while downplaying the likelihood of a filibuster), Dahlia Lithwick -- who is concerned about Alito's judgment in the relatively precedent-less world of anti-terror-law -- gives us hope for the Court's future in highlighting Anthony Kennedy as the new swing vote. (Clearly, the psycho-right despises him, which speaks well of his jurisprudence in my book.)

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service finds -- again -- that Dubya's warrantless wiretapping was illegal. In this case, the Dubya White House violated the 1947 National Security Act, by neglecting to inform the entire House and Senate intelligence committees of their shenanigans. Put it in the impeachment file, Sen. Specter.

"The president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and insistently...A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government." I've had my issues with the guy, but, y'know, when he's right, he's right. As the ACLU and Center for Constitutional Liberties plan lawsuits against the NSA wiretaps, a revived Al Gore calls out Dubya on Snoopgate (Transcript.) Interestingly enough, "Gore was supposed to have been introduced, using a video link, by former congressman Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.) -- a bitter adversary of Gore and President Bill Clinton during the 1990s who now shares Gore's concern over the surveillance program. That strange-bedfellows moment was thwarted by a technological breakdown."

"It appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or impliedly authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations here,' the authors of the CRS report wrote. The administration's legal justification 'does not seem to be...well-grounded.'" A 44-page nonpartisan report by the Congressional Research Service finds Dubya's dubious reliance on presidential prerogative to explain away the NSA wiretaps doesn't hold up.

With most of their arguments already rendered false or nonsensical, "Big Time" Dick Cheney invokes an old standby to justify the illegal NSA wiretaps (which, it turns out, may have begun before White House authorization): 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. And, also in the King George department, Dubya in effect announces he'll bypass the new torture ban whenever he feels like it. Says one legal expert: "The signing statement is saying 'I will only comply with this law when I want to, and if something arises in the war on terrorism where I think it's important to torture or engage in cruel, inhuman, and degrading conduct, I have the authority to do so and nothing in this law is going to stop me.'" (Media Matters link via Looka.) Update: The FISA court judges want answers, and a possible NSA whistleblower steps up.

"'The fact is, the federal law is perfectly clear,' Turley says. 'At the heart of this [NSA wiretap] operation was a federal crime. The president has already conceded that he personally ordered that crime and renewed that order at least 30 times. This would clearly satisfy the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors for the purpose of an impeachment.'" Salon's Michelle Goldberg assesses the current political temperature for Dubya's impeachment. "'For Republicans to suggest that this is not a legitimate question of federal crimes makes a mockery of their position during the Clinton period. For Republicans, this is the ultimate test of principle.'" Update: Slate's Dahlia Lithwick also muses on Dubya's distaste for the rule of law.

"What I've heard some of the judges say is they feel they've participated in a Potemkin court." Allegedly in protest over Dubya's illegal use of wiretaps, US District Judge James Robertson resigns from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (or FISA court.) Meanwhile, the NYT reports that, despite what the administration is saying, some purely domestic calls were overheard via Dubya's warrantless wiretaps.

Is the FBI searching for Al Qaeda...or the Army of the 12 Monkeys? In yet another example of scary overreaching by intelligence organizations of late, the ACLU disclosed today that the FBI has been spying on several innocuous activist organizations since 9/11, including PETA, Greenpeace, and the Catholic Workers' Group.

Team Dubya spent the weekend on the offensive regarding the recent disclosure of illegal NSA wiretaps, with Bush saying over and over again that disclosing the wiretaps was "a shameful act" that "damage[d] our national security." Sheah. That Dubya and his cronies would try to pass off these egregious violations of civil liberties and due process with more dissent is disloyalty garbage (and a frisson of 9/11, 9/11, 9/11) speaks once again to how corrupt and out-of-control this administration has become. Let the investigations commence. Update: Newsweek's Jonathan Alter weighs in: "Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story -- which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year -- because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker...If the Democrats regain control of Congress, there may even be articles of impeachment introduced."

"I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care." Aided by today's shocking revelation that the NSA has been monitoring thousands of international calls without a warrant since 2002, a group of Senators led by Russ Feingold -- and including four Republicans (Craig, Hagel, Murkowski, and Sununu) -- succeed in defeating an extension of the Patriot Act. At this point, I might as well put a Feingold 2008 banner over on the sidebar -- Ever since the McCain-Feingold days, the Senator from Wisconsin has continued to rise in my esteem, and this once again proves his mettle as our most forthright and committed progressive standard-bearer. Bravo!