Today’s editorial in the NYTimes really nails this criminal adminstration to the wall. The problem is that the Times has shot itself in the foot so many times with its own reporting and involvement in the WMD issue (the last item on their litany of sins) that to castigate Bush now for that lie without also admitting their own complicity in building the foundation for its acceptance is a bit disengenuous.

DOMESTIC SPYING After 9/11, Mr. Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the conversations and e-mail of Americans and others in the United States without obtaining a warrant or allowing Congress or the courts to review the operation. Lawmakers from both parties have raised considerable doubt about the legality of this program, but Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made it clear last Monday at a Senate hearing that Mr. Bush hasn’t the slightest intention of changing it.

According to Mr. Gonzales, the administration can be relied upon to police itself and hold the line between national security and civil liberties on its own. Set aside the rather huge problem that our democracy doesn’t work that way. It’s not clear that this administration knows where the line is, much less that it is capable of defending it. Mr. Gonzales’s own dedication to the truth is in considerable doubt. In sworn testimony at his confirmation hearing last year, he dismissed as “hypothetical” a question about whether he believed the president had the authority to conduct warrantless surveillance. In fact, Mr. Gonzales knew Mr. Bush was doing just that, and had signed off on it as White House counsel.

The first two items on their list, Domestic Spying (excerpted above) and Guatanamo, are both issues in which now Attorney General (then White House Counsel) was heavily involved, most notably for constructing the justification. As Attorney General Mr. Gonzalez would ordinarily be charged with investigation the Executive Branch whenever issues of criminal conduct or violations of Constitutional provisions have occurred (excepting the President and Vice-President, who have to answer to Congress through impeachment proceedings or to the voters come election day). But it is clear that will never happen since what Bush did by getting Gonzalez installed as AG was to basically have his defense attorney appointed as the chief Federal Prosecutor, thereby guaranteeing the crimes will never be investigated.

Also, I want to mention again that Gonzalez actually told the Senate committee before which he testified the other day that “Congress can suggest legislation to the President”, illustrating his utter contempt for the basic structures of our Constitutional form of government. That statement, uttered at least twice, is the clearest and boldest statement yet by a member of this adminstration that the belief in absolute Executive Power that has been a centerpiece of neocon ideology (embodied in Dick Cheney, among others, since the Nixon adminstration) is not the operative thinking of this administration. They have completely rejected any role for elected officials beyond rubber-stamping Presidential directives and “suggesting” things to their Great Leader.

The takeover is nearly complete.