Showdown at the Senate Judiciary Corral

The always smarmy, arrogant and dishonest Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General to the Neocons, got an especially satisfying ass whuppin' yesterday at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. You can listen to it in three parts here: 1 2 3. At one point Chairperson Patrick Leahy got so incensed at Berto's nonchalance about sending a Canadian citizen to be tortured in Syria for a year (before being released uncharged) that I thought he was going to explode. You can see a clip at Crooks and Liars, along with the text of an exchange between Sen. Russ Feingold and Gonzales on Bush's warrantless surveillance program.

As the Democratic-dominated 110th Congress moves into high gear, there is much to applaud, like the 100-hour passage of six bills in the House, and much to complain about, like the reluctance of too many Dems to support taking real action to stop Bush's escalation in lieu of the more popular nonbinding resolution introduced by Levin, Biden and Hagel. But no-one can argue that winning all those Congressional races hasn't done much for the cause if any attention is paid at all to what's begun to happen at the Committee hearings.

It was so incredibly heartening to witness Gonzales being backed into a tighter and tighter corner by Leahy and the rest of the Dem members of Justice. And to hear them imply strongly that if Gonzales kept obfuscating or delaying, they'd be happy to call hearings every week or issue subpoenas when necessary to get at the truth. THIS is what winning back the majority in both Houses means, regardless of what anyone feels about this Dem or that. We finally have a way to get at these dangerous liars and force them to assume -- very pubicly -- at least some accountability for their horrendous, unAmerican actions. Whole lotta squirmin' going' on. And it's only just begun.

I thought Senators Leahy, Feingold, Feinstein, Kennedy, Schumer, Durbin, Cardin, Whitehouse and Kohl all did a terrific job of focusing like lasers on the secretive and often unconstitutional actions of Gonzales and BushCo and on their continuing coverup sins. Nowhere to run, Mr. Alberto. From now until the next presidential election.

The press release issued by Leahy about the hearing is also a doozy. Read it here. Excerpts:

In the 32 years since I first came to the Senate – during the era of Watergate and Vietnam – I have never seen a time when our Constitution and fundamental rights as Americans were more threatened by their own government.  Just this last weekend, the President and Vice President indicated that they intended to override the will of the American people, as expressed in the most recent national elections, and ignore actions of Congress in order to escalate the war in Iraq.  This Administration has circumvented express congressional prohibitions on creating databanks of information on law-abiding Americans over the last five years.

... The President has issued signing statement after signing statement declaring the law to be not what Congress passed and he has signed, but what he finds convenient.  And, regrettably, the Administration has all too often refused to answer the legitimate oversight questions of the duly-elected representatives of the American people.  Unfortunately, this Justice Department has been complicit in advancing these government policies which threaten our basic liberties and overstep the bounds of our Constitution.

... We have a democratic government in which Congress is entitled to know and review government actions.  The President and Vice President of the United States should not be operating a secret and separate regime in which their official acts and policies cannot be known by the people’s elected representatives.

... And, after the Administration and the Republican-led Congress eviscerated the Great Writ of habeas corpus -- not just for detainees but for millions of permanent residents living in the United States -- this Department of Justice filed a legal brief expressly supporting that result, raising the specter that millions living in the United States today can now be subjected to indefinite government detention.

... I am also deeply concerned that the Department of Justice is retreating from its core mission to hold those who would violate our criminal laws accountable.  Last week, the President told us that he plans to spend $1.2 billion more, on top of the billions already sent to Iraq for reconstruction.  Despite mounting evidence of widespread corruption, contracting fraud and billions unaccounted for, the Department of Justice has not brought a single criminal case against a corporate contractor in Iraq.

Maybe, just maybe, Bush and his cronies will finally be exposed as what they really are beneath all the flag waving, pontificating and false bravado. I want to witness their being thoroughly discredited, their self-serving approach to American policy finally being exposed and nailed down as misguided, dangerous and craven to the nth degree. When all is said and done, I think this bunch will make Nixon et al. look like clean-cut Good Samaritans in comparison.

The real question is whether the BushCo bullies will purposefully try to take us all down with them, in so many parts of the world, as their imperial plots collapse in ruination and their fake patriot masks are ripped from their faces to show the ghoulish visages that lurk beneath.