The President's Involvement - From Comey's Testimoney

Great post at Daily Kos today that shows the direct involvement of President Bush for Ashcroft to sign off on warrantless wiretapping.

There's a video from Politics TV of Comey's testimony also.

Here's a bit of Daily Kos:

Comey: It was just the three of us at that point. I tried to see if I could help him get oriented. As I said, it wasn't clear that I had succeeded. I went out in the hallway, spoke to Director Mueller by phone. He was on his way. He handed the phone to the director of the security detail, and Director Mueller instructed the FBI agents present not to allow me to be removed from the room under any circumstances. And I went back in the room.

Card and Gonzales arrived shortly thereafter, tried to persuade Ashcroft to authorize their activities, but failed and ultimately left the room. Within minutes after that, Card called Comey and demanded an immediate meeting on his turf, in the White House. Comey told Card that:

After the conduct I had just witnessed, that I would not meet with him without a witness present. He said, "What conduct? We were just there to wish him well."

I said again, after what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness, and I intend that witness to be the Solicitor General of the United States.

A must read!

The Worst President Ever?

Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, in an Opinion column at USA Today, wrote this:

Mea culpa to Bush on Presidents Day
Plain Talk by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY founder

Our great country has had 43 presidents. Many very good. A few pretty bad. On Presidents Day next Monday, it's appropriate to commemorate them all.

I remember every president since Herbert Hoover, when I was a grade school kid. He was one of the worst. I've personally met every president since Dwight Eisenhower. He was one of the best.

A year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying "this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst."

"She's wrong," I wrote. Then I rated these five presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Hoover and Richard Nixon. "It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list," I added.

I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top.

No offence to Al, but the day I found out GW was running for president, I was extremely leery! I wasn't crazy about his father, and having somewhat followed his career as a governor, I was sure I didn't want him as my president. I am still awed at how his presidency even came about.

When the media and people I knew were saying what a down to earth man GW was, he was the type of guy you'd want to have a beer with, I cringed. I couldn't see what they were seeing in him. What I saw was an arrogant, spoiled son of a former president. And when I heard Cheney was his choice for VP, my blood turned to ice.

At that point I knew nothing about PNAC, but I am old enough to remember the Nixon years and the Reagan years. I remembered Iran Contra and all the players involved. And lo and behold, these people were brought back for the GW reign! At that point I knew we were in trouble.

Later, after 9/11, people were still saying Bush was a great president. I still didn't see this. I wondered why he wasn't heard from for over 24 hours after 9/11. I heard about the school in Florida that he was at at the time of 9/11. I heard about Air Force One flying around until they decided to land somewhere safe. Then I heard about the Saudis being flown out of the country when there was a ban on all aircraft from flying for days after 9/11. I knew, when other didn't, that something was terribly wrong. So many people were singing his praises, but I was wondering what they saw in this man and was I the only one feeling this way.

That feeling of being alone was only exacerbated by the news stations, the Main Stream Media, saying what a great job Bush was doing. This feeling of being alone didn't pass until Air America Radio came to be and I realized I was not alone.

Then came Iraq and the lies to get into a war with Saddam! But that's another post all together!

Did any of you feel like I did? Alone in dreading Bush's presidency?