Tuesday, May 15, 2007

This is like something from a Tom Clancy book:

[...] desperate late night efforts by [...] White House [...] to get the Justice Department to approve a secret program -- the warrantless wiretapping program.

[...] The events took place in March of 2004, when the program was in need of renewal by the Justice Department. When then-Attorney General John Ashcroft fell ill and was hospitalized, Comey became the acting-Attorney General.

The deadline for the Justice Department's providing its sign-off of the program was March 11th (the program required reauthorization every 45 days). On that day, Comey, then the acting AG, informed the White House that he "would not certify the legality" of the program.

According to Comey, he was on his way home when he got a call from Ashcroft's wife that Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card were on their way to the hospital*. Comey then rushed to the hospital (sirens blaring) to beat them there and thwart "an effort to overrule me."

That *sterisk was in the original post (not added by me), and it refers to an update which suggests that it was Bubble Boy hisself who called Mrs. Ashcroft.

There is more here, from the internets's best source of liveblogging.

I don't have the imagination to predict the details of all of these revelations of outrageous behavior by the administration. But none of it surprises me when I hear it, either.