Senatorial skepticism meets partisan hackery

Shall I comment on the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on Bush's domestic eavesdropping program -- snoopgate, spygate, call it what you will?

No, not now, but I'll have more in the days to come.

Isn't it enough to say that Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales is a fool? Or is he not quite that stupid? Perhaps he really believes in the legality of Bush's illegal program? Or has he merely been put out there to defend the indefensible? I mean, he's a partisan hack, isn't he? A long-time Bush crony? Isn't that how he's risen up the food chain?

Whatever. I'm not just skeptical. I'm really, really pissed off. And Arlen Specter's lame investigation will no doubt get us nowhere.

The Washington Post has a recap of today's events here.

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But let me leave you with a bit of Digby:

I've been digesting this morning's hearings and I am dumbstruck by the totality of the Republicans' abdication of their duty. These men who spent years running on Madisonian principles ("The essence of government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse") now argue without any sense of irony or embarrassment that Republican Senators are nothing more than eunuchs in President Bush's political harem. They have voluntarily rendered the congress of the United States impotent to his power.

I've watched this invertebrate GOP caucus since 2000 as they submitted themselves to this lawless administration again and again, shredding every bit of self respect, every figment of institutional pride, every duty to the constitution. The look in their eyes, which is somehow interpreted as strong and defiant by the equally servile media, is actually a window to empty little men who have given up their manhood to oblige their master. The only reward they seek is unfettered access to the taxpayers money for their own use.

We are looking at fifty-five of the most powerful people in the country. Collectively the Republican Senators represent almost a hundred and fifty million citizens. And they have allowed a callow little boy like George W. Bush along with his grey eminences Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to strip them of their consciences, their principles and their constitutional obligations. What sad little creatures, cowardly and subservient, unctuously bowing and scraping before Karl Rove the man who holds their (purse) strings and dances them around the halls of congress singing tributes to their own irrelevance at the top of their lungs. How pathetic they are.

Have a nice day. See you later.