This, That, the Other

Oh, fantastic.

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Surely this was an oversight. A slipup. Gonzo wouldn't deliberately lie, would he? Heaven forfend.

Hmmm, then there's this.

White House counsel Fred F. Fielding informed lawmakers in a letter yesterday that Bush was asserting executive privilege for the second time in two weeks regarding requested testimony by former counsel Harriet E. Miers and former political director Sara M. Taylor about the prosecutor firings.

Bush won't let Miers and Taylor testify for real, you know, under oath and on the record. He's happy to make them available for "private interviews," which seems to mean "presenting utter fabrications without penalty. And he's invoking executive privilege because his counsel is part of the executive branch. But his vice president isn't.

It makes perfect sense.

And, in other news--almost too predictably--another family values-trumpeting, traditional marriage-defendin' politician, David Ritter (R-LA) is found to have taken an uncharacteristic walk on the wild side. Oh, but look--he has his very own get out of jail free card, at least where he's hoping the morality police are concerned:

"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter continued.

Evangelism may not mean never having to say you're sorry, but it does seem to mean you can do whatever the hell you want, while working to officially smack down other people for what you define as a sin, just as long as you say the magic "I'm sorry!" words to excuse you from all culpability for whichever of those holy commandments you broke this time, clearing your slate until the next time, and the next. It's the smug arrogance that leads people to wear t-shirts like this one. Few things make me want more to punch people in the face.

It goes without saying that Ritter was a big federal marriage amendment supporter.

"I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one," said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican.

Except maybe deciding to stay away from the hookers between floor debates on the inevitable deletrious effects of Big Sodomy on his own marriage.