Huffington:Congress Needs to Find Out:Did Bush Order Gonzales & Card to Put the Squeeze on Ashcroft?

[Kadie]

Congress Needs to Find Out: Did Bush Order Gonzales and Card to Put the Squeeze on Ashcroft?
Arianna Huffington


In today's L.A. Times, Jonah Goldberg discusses the "redemption" of John Ashcroft and fantasizes that the same image rehab may one day happen for George Bush. Talk about your Extreme Make-Over!

I'll save the discussion of the validity of Ashcroft's "hero" status for another day -- although it speaks volumes about the extent the Bush administration has defined deviancy downward that acting to protect the Constitution instead of undermining it is seen as a heroic act of courage, and a sign of remarkable integrity.

The problem with Goldberg's piece is that it shifts the focus away from where it should be: finding out who sent Vito and Big Pussy -- I mean, Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card -- to Ashcroft's sick bed to try to pressure him into reauthorizing aspects of the NSA wiretap program the acting Attorney General didn't think were legal.

Was it the president? James Comey, the former acting AG in question, testified that Bush called Ashcroft's wife to get Vito and Pussy -- sorry, Gonzales and Card -- into the ICU. So he was clearly in on the plan -- if not leading the plan -- to maneuver around the Comey roadblock by trying to get a deathly-ill man to sign off on his spy program. When NBC's Kelly O'Donnell asked the president last week if he'd authorized the high-ranking goon squading of Ashcroft, he refused to answer the question. Twice. Isn't that something Congress should be looking into?

more...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/congress-needs-to-find-ou_b_49070.html

[DefenseLawyer]

1. Why?

So they can "chide" him?

[Fridays Child]

5. So that the Dems can have one more reason to NOT impeach Bush..

It seems that, the more crap that bastard pulls, the safer his job is.

What planet is this, and how do I get back to my old one?

[watrwefitinfor]

6. They will then send him a letter.

And make empty threats when he ignores it.

Wat

[tridim]

2. It doesn't matter.. It'll all be smoke and mirrors

It's been proven today that our congress still doesn't give a crap what the voters want.

[seemslikeadream]

3. BEFORE Cheney starts bombing Iran

[acmavm]

4. And other than Comey, do they expect anyone else involved in this

midnight madness to tell the truth.

[Disturbed]

7. Dems in Congress will ignore the Smoking Gun.

Comey stated that the Illegal Spying Operation continued for a "few weeks" before a compromise was reached with the DOJ. How many Felonies were perpetrated by Busholini and NSA in those "few weeks"?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. I thought Congress was looking into this?

[Peace Patriot]

9. WHO were they spying on and why? If lawmen Comey and Mueller had not

balked at the illegal spying program for two years, what got them all exercised about it in March 2004?

Comey said he and Ashcroft were "reviewing what they had learned" about the program. But Schumer didn't follow up with, "WHAT had you learned?"

Possibilities: That Rove/Gonzo & Cabal were spying on Comey and Ashcroft, and others in their own agencies? The domestic political opposition? Members of their own party? Was that how they kept people in line--spying blackmail?

I don't think those incredible late-night events around Ashcroft's ICU bed and at the WH (Comey refusing to meet with Card "without a witness"!), were about legal niceties--and a mere signature. I think it was what the illegal spying was being used FOR.