Overwhelming...

Sometimes the tentacles of audacity, stupidity, manipulation and sheer criminality of Bush Inc. are simply too much to comprehend at one time. Like the giant octopus of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, it comes from every direction and devours everything in its wake.
It seems beyond the imagination of even a Jules Verne that all of these things could be exposing themselves at the same time:

• James Comey, a former deputy to Alberto Gonzalez, testifies that he had to personally intervene in 2004 to prevent Gonzalez and Chief of Staff Andrew Card from coercing a sickbed signature from Gonzalez' predecessor, John Ashcroft. Ashcroft had been in intensive care for several days in a D.C. hospital when someone at the White House dispatched Card and then White House counsel Gonzalez to force him to sign off on continuation of the domestic wiretapping program. Ashcroft, then F.B.I. director Robert Mueller and Comey all threatened to quit if Gonzalez and Card didn't back off. They did, but Bush intervened by ruling that the program could continue even without the consent of his own Attorney General
• Last week, Gonzalez was subpoenaed and ordered by Congress to turn over emails pertaining to any role Karl Rove might have had in the U.S. attorney firings. The deadline was yesterday. Not only did Gonzalez not deliver the goods, he didn't even bother offering an explanation, or responding in any way. The nation's top law enforcement official does not obey the law
• An investigation by the World Bank itself concludes that Paul Wolfowitz, "...did not accept the bank's policy on conflict of interest, so he sought to negotiate for himself a resolution different from that which would be applied to the staff he was selected to head."
• As has been the custom, Bush has chosen a senior lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is responsible for monitoring the deeds of people like the National Association of Manufacturers. As a going away present, the Association gave him a $150,000 bonus. The lobbyist explains that even though ethics guidelines would prevent him from ruling on matters concerning the association itself for two years, it doesn't mean he'll stop involvement with issues pertaining to individual members of the association, or even similar trade groups involving the same companies
  
• Two years ago, when she was 31, Monica Goodling was given responsibility for screening potential U.S. attorneys. Her requirements consisted of a law degree from Pat Robertson's Regents University (somewhat worse than a mail order medical diploma). In her role, she asked candidates deep legal questions like, "who is your favorite President?", and "have you ever cheated on your spouse?" She kicked out anyone suspected of being a Democrat
• As described in the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, "...Americans recruited to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad were chosen, at times, for their loyalty toward Republicanism rather than expertise on Islamism. The coalition government relied heavily on...a large cadre of eager young neophytes whose brashness often gave offense in a very age- and status-conscious society. One young political appointee (a 24-year-old Ivy League graduate) argued that Iraq should not enshrine judicial review in its constitution because it might lead to the legalization of abortion."

What to make of all of this? These people believe one thing: that laws and rules are meant for other people, not them.

diderot