Going ... Going ... Gonzales

Attorney General Gonzales got hauled in front of the Senate Judiciary committee this week. Ahhhh, Senate committees actually doing their jobs of oversight. It's like I'm living in America again. I'm sure the feeling will pass.

Anyway, my beef is not really with Mr. Gonzales. It just, when you look at the news that we'll now try terror suspects with hearsay and coerced evidence, without allowing their defense to see government evidence --

-- or the weird mid-term purge of prosecutors who were all, coincidentally, investigating political corruption --

-- or his bizarre position on habeus corpus:

Specter: Now wait a minute, wait a minute. The Constitution says you can't take it away except in the case of invasion or rebellion. Doesn't that mean you have the right of habeas corpus?

Gonzales: I meant by that comment that the Constitution doesn't say that every individual in the United States or every citizen has or is assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn't say that. It simply says that the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.

(See Article 1, Section 9 for why this is vaguely insane) --

-- or how the warrantless wiretapping system that was so vital it needed to be done outside FISA has now, lickety-split, been brought under the court's jurisdiction ... except that Congress isn't allowed to see the conditions under which it's legitimized. And all this just two weeks before the first case regarding the program goes to court (seriously, there are like five just crazification level contradictions in there) --

-- it's just that, as we all know I don't care for the electoral college. I also favor public financing of elections. And several commentors made it clear that wanting these changes shows such reckless disregard for the Constitution, I might as well roofie the document, have my way with it and dump it in a ditch by the highway. The outrage!

Yet Cheney and Gonzales have dropped the Constitution into a hole in the White House basement and are currently dancing naked around the pit, penises tucked between their legs, screaming "It rubs the lotions on its Amendments!" at the shuddering, terrified document, and there's nary a peep.

Seriously, what the fuck?

Bonus points for Senator Pat Leahy on the Arar case:

Leahy: "We knew damn well if he went to Canada he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held and he'd be investigated. We also knew damn well if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured."

Syria, of course, being our enemy for helping insurgents in Iraq and backing Hizbollah, but not so much our enemy that we can't send people to get tortured there ... damn this makes my head hurt.