The Workday Liberal

I blog from work, and today has been a particularly busy work day. So if I have missed someone out there making the same point in essence, forgive my inattentiveness.

The WhiteHouse leaked a justification on Alberto Gonzales' testimony that they believe allows the public record to jive. They say that Gonzales raced to the hospital bed of then Attorney General John Ashcroft regarding a classified NSA data mining program, not the widely publicized NSA surveillance program.

Recalling the particulars of the controversy, Gonzales has testified that the NSA surveillance program as described by President Bush was not controversial. However deputy A/G James Comey described the now famous midnight rush to the bedside of A/G Ashcroft to stop him from being strong armed by Andrew Card and Gonzo. Comey describes a program which lead to the threatened resignations of most of the top leadership of the Justice Department, which hardly jives with the spin by Alberto that the program was non controversial.

Why the explanation that we are seeing reaction to two different programs doesn't wash is because of the House Judiciary committee testimony of FBI director Robert Mueller. It is that testimony which the White House is immediately trying to square with Gonzales previous statements. In that testimony Mueller is quite clear. Regarding the program at issue during the hospital caper he says: "The discussion was on a national -- an NSA program that has been much discussed, yes,"

The problem here is that there is only one program which has been "much discussed". The new data mining program which was leaked to cover Gonzo's rear can not be Mueller's "much discussed" program because prior to this weekends leak no one had ever known of it's existence. Unless...

Maybe what Mueller is talking about is the Total Awareness Information program which Congress defunded, strangely enough the day prior to Gonzales and Card trying to strong arm the incapacitated Ashcroft. In other words, what if Congress specifically outlawed a program which the President was not willing to let go of? Could Mueller then get away with saying the program was much discussed (it was unanimously voted down at the time) while the White House is casting about for legal justifications to keep the program going.

What happens if the Justice Department roundly disagrees with the White Houses take that simply having Congress outlaw a program is not grounds to do away with the program? I imagine the leadership of the Justice Department being asked to sign off on blatantly illegal activities at the time. That leadership is without John Ashcroft who was hospitalized, and Comey is too good a lawyer to be the fall guy for that kind of illegality. Who ever it is that signed off on allowing a program to continue despite being specifically outlawed by Congress would have his neck way out there if the program were to leak.

If this is the case then it is Mueller who is playing loosey goosey with the details. He is trying to make it appear that the program is already well known, and that necessarily means it is the so called terrorist surveillance program. But if it is in fact a program outlawed by Congress but kept running under cover of classification and in secret... that is an even worse scandal to my way of thinking. That is the administration (yet again) being a law unto themselves, in contravention to the very constitution which the President has sworn to uphold.

In my way of thinking the lesson history will take from this abomination of an administration is just how important the oath taken by the President upon assuming office is. That oath does not once mention the President being charged with protecting America, or keeping us safe. Yet time and again we hear Bush and his mouthpieces tell us that keeping us safe is his most important duty. His most important duty is to defend and uphold the constitution. Yet in the name of protecting us the President has time and again had occassion to dismiss fundamental constitutional precepts.

I rather suspect that we are witnessing yet another instance of classified law breaking (and this instance is one of the most damaging to our system yet if it proves true: I mean the President is basically defying Congress in secret) being shown the light of day.