I will have much, much more to say about this. But for now, I just want to give high praise to Rep. Dennis Kucinich for having the integrity to press ahead with the impeachment of George W. Bush. During yesterday’s House session he spent four hours and forty minutes reading 35 articles of impeachment into the record.

Will this go forward? No. Not with the time he has left. But for history and posterity, the record will show a detailed account of the accusations put forward against President Bush.

Will he also read the accusations against Dick Cheney into the record?

One other thing: Scott McClellan will testify before the House in the Valerie Plame outing case.

Oh, and what should comprise the centerpiece of impeachment: The Senate Report issued last week, which concludes:

The “Phase II” report states — in terms clearer than any previous government publication — that there was no operational relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, that Bush officials were not truthful about the difficulties the United States would face in post-war Iraq and that their public statements did not reflect intelligence they had at the time, and, specifically, that the intelligence community would not confirm any meeting between Iraqi officials and Mohamed Atta — a claim that was nevertheless publicly repeated.

Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” Rockefeller said in a statement provided to The Huffington Post.

“In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed. … There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.”

And in other Bush egregiousness, parts of Iowa and Wisconsin are under water partly because levees failed.

Standing on the ashes of the man,
originally uploaded by herby_fr.

Today’s attack on democracy in the United States began with George W. Bush’s efforts to strongarm the House of Representatives into extending the Protect America Act.

Failure to act would harm our ability to monitor new terrorist activities and could re-open dangerous gaps in our intelligence. Failure to act would also make the private sector less willing to help us protect the country, and this is unacceptable.

The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor terrorist communications. Our intelligence professionals are working day and night to keep us safe, and they’re waiting to see whether Congress will give them the tools they need to succeed or tie their hands by failing to act.

Determined not to be upstaged by their faithful leader, House Republicans called a vote during the memorial service for Tom Lantos, forcing Congressmen to leave the memorial service to return for a vote on…nothing.

And like the two-year-old babies that they are, when confronted with a vote on a resolution to cite Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton for contempt of Congress (which they are), House Republicans, save two, walked out in a huff to a bank of microphones and reporters conveniently waiting on the steps of the Capitol.

The House Democrats, in their first act of patriotic bravery, passed two resolutions, one of which holds Bolton and Miers in contempt. It is refreshing to see Nancy Pelosi finally stand up for what’s right instead of backing down and dropping the ball.

“This is beyond arrogance,” said Pelosi. “It’s hubris taken to the ultimate degree.”

Conyers said he had already discovered “plenty of evidence of wrongdoing at the Department of Justice. He said officials made the decision to fire attorneys on the basis of whether they had pursued public corruption charges against Democratic government officials. He also said that Justice officials made misleading statements to investigators minimizing the apparent involvement of White House personnel in the firings.

Emboldened by the adrenaline that comes with doing the right thing for a change, Speaker Pelosi adjourned the House of Representatives until a week from Monday, allowing the Protect America Act to expire on Saturday.

Can you imagine this happening a year ago? Even six months ago? Why the difference? Could it be that our elected Representatives are hearing us when we tell them via vote and voice that we refuse to be intimidated, bullied and controlled by fear? Could it be that they are finally getting the message that we expect them to represent us and do the right thing instead of the political thing? It would seem so.

Another Patriot Act: Congressman Silvestre Reyes sent a letter to President Bush Thursday, forcefully reminding him that his statements about leaving America vulnerable are patently false and that the House of Representatives will not be bullied into passing a law on the basis of empty threats. His closing paragraphs seem to echo something I’ve been hearing recently in one of the candidates’ Presidential campaigns:

I, for one, do not intend to back down – not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.

We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.

The entire letter should be framed and placed squarely on the Oval Office desk.

In a parting shot, Nancy Pelosi said :

President Bush tells the American people he has nothing to offer but fear.

I believe that our representatives are hearing our voices, the voices that call, fax, email, blog and write. The voices of the voters who are turning out in droves to say they are tired of being the pawns in a big political game. The voices that think it’s wrong for our government to ignore the same laws we obey.

Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment tonight articulated the outrage that I feel when I think about the payoff Bush wants to give the telephone companies for spying on me, especially this:

Mark Klein was the AT&T Whistleblower, the one who explained in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood I-T desk, how he personally attached all AT&T circuits — everything — carrying every one of your phone calls, every one of your e-mails, every bit of your web browsing into a secure room, room number 641-A at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.

Not some of it, not just the international part of it, certainly not just the stuff some spy — a spy both patriotic and telepathic — might able to divine had been sent or spoken by — or to — a terrorist.

Everything!

Every time you looked at a naked picture.

Every time you bid on eBay.

Every time you phoned in a donation to a Democrat.

Oh, go ahead and watch the whole thing. You know you want to. Even when Keith gets shrill, he makes good points and tonight’s were especially well-spoken.

Will the newly-emboldened House of Representatives inspire the Senate to do the right thing? Will we finally have elected representatives who understand that we’re refusing to allow them to run roughshod over the Constitution for political and personal gain? Will George Bush join the board of AT&T when he leaves office?

Stay tuned for upcoming Patriot Acts, and the inevitable whimpers of cowards, fading away into better, bolder times. We can always hope.

Related:

• EFF: Telecoms Say They Won’t “Protect America” If They Don’t Get Their Way: Talking Points
• Domestic Access to Spy Imagery Expands

Technorati Tags: Congress, Representatives, politics, FISA, Protect America, Bush, Pelosi, patriotism, constitution, doing the right thing

Note: this is guest-blogged by my 13-year old daughter, who came home today in a huff after tussling with friends and peers at school over such diverse subjects as the Iraq war, warrantless wiretapping, Election 2008, and illegal immigration all in the span of a 90-minute PE class. I asked her to blog it because I was taken aback by her passion and by the depth of her own thought and knowledge on the topic. Hers is a self-described small voice that “doesn’t matter” (her words, not mine), but her post represents the voices of the next wave of voters, and how our decisions today have such a deep impact on their lives, tomorrow. I know she’d love comments, please feel free to leave some.

Beware!

…small girl speaking–giving opinions–on big subjects.

Though my voice does not matter, and won’t be wanted until I’m eighteen, I can nevertheless help but speak it.

The presidential election of 2008 is, in fact a) a historical one; b) an exciting one; and, c) an important one. It’s a crucial time in our history, what with the war and the economy, etc… and the kids, children, teens, or whatever you want to call us can’t help but notice. We have the influence of the news and reporters telling us this and that; we have our parents’ influence whether it be Democratic or Republican, all the while learning about the Constitution and our government in history class. In short, we develop opinions, and with opinions come disagreements.

Unlike the majority of my peers I don’t have the luxury of believing what my parents believe in terms of politics. My daddy is a Republican, born and bred; my mom is a Democrat. My dad’s side of the family (Republican) lives closest to us, and I get more exposure to them than my mother’s side of the family (Democratic). My mom’s side of the family, however, is more involved and opinionated about politics. Basically I pretty much see both sides of the issues. I also see one or more small disputes that come up because of this. In addition to that, I’m also a blogger and the daughter of a blogger and seem to pick up reports and information more than my friends on these issues. This helps when you’re in an advanced history class, learning government, and are constantly bombarded with projects in which you must take various issues, research, and reflect on them. I will say we are pretty lucky to be learning this during an election. It makes it easier to understand, but unfortunately as I said before, adds to more opinions and more disputes.

Lately, these discussions have been more frequent in school. They started in our yearbook class when our teacher wasn’t there to tell us not to. There are usually about six of us who are the most involved. Two of us, me and another, are very independent thinkers, and very open to opinions which, luckily, agree with each other. The rest are fairly spread out.

It usually starts out, “I want a women president, that would be sooo cool.” I personally hate these comments, why should someone be nominated or elected based on their gender or race? Shouldn’t it be on their ideas, how they would lead us? I voice my opinions and the response is, “Whatever, I still want a women president!” Whatever.

Another person, “My dad is registered as a Democrat so he can vote for Hillary and she can lose to McCain.” I personally think that’s not a trait I would want to share with others, why play like that? Not cool, dude. The other independent, “Obama ‘08! We need change after Bush, not more war and fighting, or more lies like Hillary.” Another person, “Ew, Bush sucks, all my family supports him but me, and they get mad at me for it. I don’t get it, we’re fighting a war that’s not ours to fight.” Me: ”I agree, but why should they be mad at you for your own opinions and differences?” Anyway it usually carries on like this till the end of the period, usually just discussion on the latest primary or caucus, not fighting. The real disagreements came today in PE.

After awhile of the debates and speeches, I decided I was with my mother on Obama, and here’s the great part: My dad, the homegrown Republican, voted Obama too, Woo! So we usually have 10 minutes or so before class starts since it’s 1st period PE, and I usually talk with my friends, and some others, usually the other people in my Honors classes.

The day after Super Tuesday I was talking with them and I asked what the end result of the democratic primary in California was. “I think Hilary won by about 15%,” someone says. “That sucks,” I say. “Why? You WANT Obama to win??” by someone else. Now that’s not cool, don’t you dare get mad at me for my opinions. “Yes I do.” “Seriously? WHY?” (…did you seriously just say that? sigh…) ”Because he is who I prefer, I would personally not like to send in more troops, and I agree with most of his ideas. Jeez, you don’t have to get indignant over a difference of opinions, not cool.” “Whatever.” Haha I love this, “Bananas not War.” I say, and just as the whistle blows to get in our spots she says, “What!?” Haha, live, laugh, love.

So then, next PE the subject of politics comes up again, someone says,”Mitt Romney dropped out last night, that’s too bad I wanted him to be president.” Really? I didn’t know that, Cool. “Well McCain’s going to win anyway so he shouldn’t waste his money.” Another says we are all idiots. If that person wasn’t my friend I would be getting mad again at the intolerance they have toward other’s opinions.

“Hillary better be the Democratic candidate, she’ll be easier to beat.” That’s true, it was projected that if it was Hillary and McCain, McCain would win, but with McCain and Obama, Obama was projected to win. Of course that isn’t exactly the election, anything could happen.

“It bugs me how, although Hillary is the one running for president, lately you see more Bill than Hillary. We’re voting for Hillary, not Bill and Hillary. But I suppose you get them as a package, that’s one of the things I don’t like, some of the remarks he made were uncalled for.” Such as after S. Carolina. haha, NOT.

“I don’t really care.” Another says. The other person again, “I don’t care–McCain’s going to win.” “Do you really want that huge war hawk as president?” I say, I’m starting to lose my temper, although I shouldn’t. Come on, it’s early, I’m sleepy and I’m about to run a mile. I’m still civil though. “What?” she askes. “Dude, he’s like all for the war in Iraq, it’s time to bring our troops home, stop spreading our chaos and messing everything up even more.”

“Oh. My. Gosh, we can’t leave Iraq! Are you kidding? As soon as we leave they are like, going to bomb us!”

“Are you serious? They aren’t going to bomb us. And they don’t have weapons of mass destruction either.”

“Do you read at all? Hellllo, 9/11! If we leave they will Iraq will bomb us again!” hmm, I wonder if I say 9/11 they will jump, because they seem reaaally paranoid.

“Ok, first of all, do not say ‘Iraq will bomb us’. 9/11 was terrorists, NOT Iraq. By saying that you are condemning everybody in Iraq, all the innocent people whose homes WE have invaded, for NO reason! Second off, IRAQ and IRAN do NOT have nuclear bombs! It’s proven, do you know Iraq said they did to keep from being attacked?”

“As soon as we leave they will get Nuclear Bombs and bomb us.” grr…

“From where? They have no Money! We’ve already destroyed so much of their land, with no help to clean it up, How on earth would that happen!”

“Thats not true!”

“Really? Prove it to me.”

“Thats not the point.” Ha, no you’re avoiding the point. “The point is we are in a war that we need to win, then we can bring all the troops in that you like.”

“Dude, so many people are there right now, fighting for us! You want to send in more innocent people to go and mess up the other innocent people’s homes? You dont find any of that wrong?”

“If they don’t want to fight for us they don’t have to, heck I’ll go. It gives me an excuse to shoot people.”

“What if you get shot?” another person asks.

“I don’t care, I just won’t get shot, and even so I’ll just come home with one leg.”

Dear God, someone shoot me now so I can stop listening to this. “Are you kidding me!” It occurs to me that the people I’m standing next to all have no older brothers. “You don’t get it, you don’t get how serious this is, dude people are dying, DYING, over there and you’re joking about it–”

“I’m not joking.”

“–either that or you haven’t watched an older brother join the army–”

“If he didn’t want to go, don’t enlist.”

“Stop cutting me off! He didn’t have a choice. He needed to pay for college. I was little at the time, and didn’t always understand, but the first night he left I had nightmares that he would be out there fighting, in danger! Killed! Fighting for people like you, who could care less for one life. And as you said if people didn’t enlist they would start up the draft again, the draft that my OTHER BROTHER was MADE to sign! You don’t get that, you’ve never seen that, never had that small chance of something that important taken away from you. Also on the subject of 9/11, did you know Bush was tapping our phone lines before it happened?”

“Really?” one person pipes up.

“He did that so he could catch the people planning to do it!”

“So he knew it was going to happen then?” I ask.

“No but, just in case.”

“Well, I can see how well that worked out, so why are they still doing it? And why in such an unproductive manner? What if we accidently say something that’s like, I dont know. a code for something else? Then that person is automatically being watched, innocent because they accidently said something.”

“Well if they are innocent then they don’t have anything to hide.”

“Seriously? Have you heard of the INNOCENT people detained right NOW? Being deprived of their right of habeas corpus? Thats AGAINST the Constitution, the thing the president SWEARS to uphold and protect. Just because they aren’t citizens–”

” Well if they aren’t citizens they can get their butts out off our country!”

“Oh my gosh!” That wasn’t me, that was the girl from Vietnam standing right next to me. She is not a citizen. I lost my temper completely now.

How could anybody so arrogant to say something as that? How much of an arrogant fool do you have to be to shoot off your mouth like that and say that to a friend!

“Oh!” another person pulls the girl from Vietnam away from the group as I go stomping away, the arrogant person cries halfhearted apologies and the whistle blows. I’m still quite mad by the time PE is over and can’t help but remark on my way to the dressing rooms, “You know not everyone has the abilities and resources to become a citizen right away, including money, and time.” I’m not sure if she replied. I didn’t care enough to listen.

I’m pretty sure that’s it. I probably shouldn’t have gotten mad, and could have handled it better, but what can I say? These kinds of disputes really suck, they completely ruin your day. How could we, only 13, have such big mouths? haha jk, but we really do. It’s annoying sometimes…

–If you choose to comment on my post please keep a civil tongue and I will keep one as well. We all have differences of opinion which you are welcome to say as long as it is conducted appropriately. thankyou.—-

Can we?

“Yes we can!”

peace, love, dance.

I hope you all enjoyed the opinions of the world through the eyes of the voices that do not yet register as important

cross-posted on my own blog, too

I have never been so afraid for the future of this country as I am in these times. In other dark times, I could cling to the knowledge that where there was wrongdoing, it would eventually be exposed. Where there were crimes committed, they would eventually be prosecuted. And where there were crooks and liars, elections would oust them in favor of a new breed, possibly less malevolent. 

But in the Bush/Cheney era of operating in the dark outside of the boundaries of checks and balances, all bets are off. Our justice system has been subverted; the majority in Congress cowed and whipped into submission by the most power-hungry war machine to ever inhabit the White House and we’ve let it happen by not standing up and forcing these evildoers to be held accountable. So confident are they of their success that they daily walk into the spotlight and tell lies easily refuted but nonetheless allowed to stand, they raise their sabers and rattle them with no thought given to the price already paid for their folly, and I suspect that history will show that both of them used the last 8 years in public office to profit themselves and pillage our country in ways we haven’t even imagined yet.

Yet there is no credible movement for impeachment moving through the Congressional majority despite the rising call  from a widely diverse group of voices. Why? Impeachment must be put back on the table and it must be a serious effort, beginning with Dick Cheney. The cost of not impeaching will be expansion of our military aggression into Iran (a Dick Cheney pet project), many more lives lost in Iraq, complete subversion of the courts and justice system, and a body politic so ravaged by the dishonest raping of our 230-year old Constitution that apathy replaces anger which is a very dangerous place to be.

Which of us wants to explain to these children what freedoms their mother gave her life to preserve? The freedom to profit from overseas oil? The freedom to profit from the war machine itself? Or the freedom to stand up and tell this president that we will not sacrifice any more of our young men and women to a flawed and paranoid ideology which has separated completely from reality?

Barbara Boxer:

…now people are dying because of this administration. That’s the truth. And they won’t change course. They are ignoring the Congress. They keep signing these signing statements which mean that he’s decided not to enforce the law. This is as close as we’ve ever come to a dictatorship. When you have a situation where Congress is stepped on, that means the American people are stepped on. So I don’t think you can take anything off the table. Because in fact the Constitution doesn’t permit us to take these things off the table.

Cheney is deadly serious about pushing ahead with aggression against Iran, and his argument for why we must is so strikingly similar to the arguments for engaging Iraq that they cannot go unanswered.

From the mouth of George Bush himself, some recent lies about Iraq:

Actually, I was hoping to solve the Iraqi issue diplomatically. That’s why I went to the United Nations and worked with the United Nations Security Council, which unanimously passed a resolution that said disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. That was the message, the clear message to Saddam Hussein. He chose the course.

The truth: Iraq claimed over and over that they were not developing weapons of mass destruction. They cooperated with the UN Weapons Inspectors, who did not find evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Colin Powell, whose words to the UN probably did more to sell the American public on the war in Iraq has publicly denounced that UN speech as being based upon flawed intelligence, innuendo and exaggeration, has said more than once in public that he regrets ever going to the UN without doing an independent fact-check first.

And on July 10th, this statement of policy was released by the Bush administration, which essentially threatened to veto any bill sent up by Congress which limited the executive powers on Iraq. In addition, there was a small paragraph dealing with Iran:

The Administration strongly opposes amendments to the bill that to restrict the ability of the United States to deal effectively with the threats to regional security posed by the conduct of Iran, including Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Administration also notes that provisions of law that purport to direct or prohibit international negotiations, covert action, or the use of the armed forces are inconsistent with the Constitution’s commitment exclusively to the presidency of the executive power, the function of Commander-in-Chief, and the authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign policy. If the bill were presented to the President with provisions that would prevent the President from protecting America and allied and cooperating nations from threats posed by Iran, the President’s senior advisers would recommend he vetoed the bill.

Once again, you have the Bush/Cheney spinning machine madly spinning the tale that there is a threat to develop nuclear weapons. Yet, Iran has agreed to allow UN inspectors in, and also to scale back its enrichment of uranium. Does this sound like a country ramping up a nuclear weapons program? This is the lie that Bush and Cheney used on us with Iraq. Do not allow them to use it on us to excuse aggression against Iran. The Iran excuse is Cheney’s agenda, which he is pushing hard, despite resistance from Condoleeza Rice and Robert Gates.

It’s time: Cheney has to be impeached first. I am saying it to my representatives in Congress via fax and email and phone, too. Bruce Fein, a conservative, has this to say:

Then President George W. Bush outsourced the lion’s share of his presidency to Vice President Cheney, and Mr. Cheney has made the most of it. Since 9/11, he has proclaimed that all checks and balances and individual liberties are subservient to the president’s commander in chief powers in confronting international terrorism.

Fein goes on to list Cheney’s ‘abuses and excesses’, including the creation of military commissions (tribunals) to prosecute ‘war crimes’, kidnappings, secret detentions, and torture, championed torture, advocated signing statements intended to defy Congress, engineered the warrantless domestic surveillance program, assisted in the politicization of the justice department and subsequent subversion of justice in the form of the Libby pardon, and abused executive privilege while simulateously claiming not to be part of the executive branch of government, declaring himself a sort of fourth branch, unchecked by normal constitutional limits.

What more do we need? Impeachment is an imperative, not an option. Please write your representatives and urge them to begin impeachment proceedings against Cheney and then Bush. It is time for us to stand against the dictatorial and subversive nature of these men and reclaim this democracy which is of the people, by the people and for the people. All of them.

Related:

• Bush Directive for a “Catastrophic Emergency” in America: Building Justification for Waging War on Iran?
• Attack on Iran: Pre-emptive Nuclear War
• Reining in an Out-of-Control Executive
• National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive – May 9, 2007
• The First Problem in Iraq is BUSH
• Bruce Fein (Slate): Impeach Cheney: The Vice President Has Run Utterly Amok and Must Be Stopped
• Ellison Says Principles are Behind Effort to Impeach Cheney
• Robert Naiman: How Much Capital Will Cheney Have to Push War With Iran?
• Top GOP Senator: White House ‘F-ed Up’ the War…The Fur is Going to Start to Fly
• Bill Katovsky: Impeach Bush — Not Such a Bad Idea After All
• Iran Makes Major Nuclear Concessions

Technorati Tags: impeach, bush, cheney, iran, iraq, dictatorship

Hat Tip: Mojo Blog

Back in January I said we needed to impeach Cheney first.

Now Glenn Greenwald and BraveNewFilms.org agree. It’s time to impeach Cheney, and then Bush.

Sign the Petition

It is time to stand up and reclaim our democracy from the hands of despots and dictators. George Bush and Dick Cheney are doing what they are because we are permitting them to do it. Say “No More!” Start with Cheney, then Bush.

Democracy means using your voice. Now is not the time for silence.

Hat tip: Crooks and Liars

Technorati Tags: impeach cheney, dick cheney, george bush, crime, democracy, impeachment

A new video from ImpeachGonzales.org, summarizing the lies and bull that comprised Gonzales’ testimony before the House and Senate subcommittees:

Technorati Tags: impeachgonzales, alberto gonzales, scandal, lies, politics

I believe every single word this man says. He was obviously caught in a crisis. If you’re not convinced that Gonzales and Card are slimeballs by his testimony, you will be by the end — the last 50 seconds or so are very telling. The classified program is the warrantless wiretap program. Read more here.

In related news, it appears as though the DOJ can only locate one email with Karl Rove. According to them, his attorneys must have the rest. Who wants to call bullshit first?

Technorati Tags: james comey, NSA, wiretapping, DOJ, Alberto Gonzales, Andrew Card,

From the transcripts published on the Washington Post site, a chilling story of the Bush Administration’s effort to strongarm him into breaking the law.

Cutting to the chase: Mr. Comey was asked to authorize and extend a classified program he did not believe was legal:

COMEY: In the early part of 2004, the Department of Justice was engaged — the Office of Legal Counsel, under my supervision — in a reevaluation both factually and legally of a particular classified program. And it was a program that was renewed on a regular basis, and required signature by the attorney general certifying to its legality.

And the — and I remember the precise date. The program had to be renewed by March the 11th, which was a Thursday, of 2004. And we were engaged in a very intensive reevaluation of the matter.

And a week before that March 11th deadline, I had a private meeting with the attorney general for an hour, just the two of us, and I laid out for him what we had learned and what our analysis was in this particular matter.

And at the end of that hour-long private session, he and I agreed on a course of action. And within hours he was stricken and taken very, very ill…

SCHUMER: (inaudible) You thought something was wrong with how it was being operated or administered or overseen.

COMEY: We had — yes. We had concerns as to our ability to certify its legality, which was our obligation for the program to be renewed.

(SNIP)

COMEY: David Ayers.

That he had gotten a call from Mrs. Ashcroft from the hospital. She had banned all visitors and all phone calls. So I hadn’t seen him or talked to him because he was very ill.

And 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.

(Note, John Ashcroft is in the ICU in critical condition at this point)

COMEY: 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.

So I hung up the phone, immediately called my chief of staff, told him to get as many of my people as possible to the hospital immediately. I hung up, called Director Mueller and — with whom I’d been discussing this particular matter and had been a great help to me over that week — and told him what was happening. He said, “I’ll meet you at the hospital right now.”

Told my security detail that I needed to get to George Washington Hospital immediately. They turned on the emergency equipment and drove very quickly to the hospital.

I got out of the car and ran up — literally ran up the stairs with my security detail.

SCHUMER: What was your concern? You were in obviously a huge hurry.

COMEY: I was concerned that, given how ill I knew the attorney general was, that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me when he was in no condition to do that.

SCHUMER: Right, OK.

COMEY: I was worried about him, frankly.

And so I raced to the hospital room, entered. And Mrs. Ashcroft was standing by the hospital bed, Mr. Ashcroft was lying down in the bed, the room was darkened. And I immediately began speaking to him, trying to orient him as to time and place, and try to see if he could focus on what was happening, and it wasn’t clear to me that he could. He seemed pretty bad off.

(SNIP)

And it was only a matter of minutes that the door opened and in walked Mr. Gonzales, carrying an envelope, and Mr. Card. They came over and stood by the bed. They greeted the attorney general very briefly. And then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there — to seek his approval for a matter, and explained what the matter was — which I will not do.

And Attorney General Ashcroft then stunned me. He lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter, rich in both substance and fact, which stunned me — drawn from the hour-long meeting we’d had a week earlier — and in very strong terms expressed himself, and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, “But that doesn’t matter, because I’m not the attorney general.”

(SNIP)

What happened after Mr. Gonzales and Card left? Did you have any contact with them in the next little while?

COMEY: While I was talking to Director Mueller, an agent came up to us and said that I had an urgent call in the command center, which was right next door. They had Attorney General Ashcroft in a hallway by himself and there was an empty room next door that was the command center.

And he said it was Mr. Card wanting to speak to me.

COMEY: I took the call. And Mr. Card was very upset and demanded that I come to the White House immediately.

I responded that, after the conduct I had just witnessed, I would not meet with him without a witness present.

Read the whole transcript. This is such a blatant example of the typical thuggery which is the calling card of the Bush Administration…chilling stuff. Here’s the punchline:

SCHUMER: Let me ask you this: So in sum, it was your belief that Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card were trying to take advantage of an ill and maybe disoriented man to try and get him to do something that many, at least in the Justice Department, thought was against the law? Was that a correct summation?

COMEY: I was concerned that this was an effort to do an end-run around the acting attorney general and to get a very sick man to approve something that the Department of Justice had already concluded — the department as a whole — was unable to be certified as to its legality. And that was my concern.

The end-runner is now the Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales must resign or be prosecuted.

Technorati Tags: DOJ, Attorney firings, James Comey, Senate testimony