Well, politically things are looking ugly these days. I've been paying attention to the GOP nomination process, and to the legal drama surrounding the Bush Administrations use of detention, torture and surveillance. They make a wicked cocktail.

First from the South Carolina GOP debate, you take a splash of vengance: Rudy scoring huge when he cuts back against Ron Paul, who had the audacity to suggest that 9/11 wasn't motivated by hatred for our freedom:

Then a double-shot of bloodlust. The debate was hosted by hosted by FOX News(natch), and their long-faced consigliari Britt Hume dropped a lovely little scenario out of 24 to get the candidates out on the issue of torture. This is a segment in which proposals to "double the size of Gitmo... where they don't have access to lawyers" got a hearty round of applause for Marvelous Mitt Romney, and Rudy gets a good response for "every method they can think of."

McCain falls flat trying to be a little honorable, him being the one up there with real personal experience and all. Sorry Walnuts; the crowd didn't buy it. Not salty enough, I guess.

To complete your cocktail, garnish with a sprig of Orwell. One of the things that also pops out of the last segment is the way the candidates -- and presumably the GOP base -- dance around with doublespeak: "Not torture, but enhanced interrogation techniques." That's almost good enough for Madison Avenue.

In concert with all this, there's the unfolding legal drama around the Department of Justice, Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney's office, and the machinations that occurred during the zenith of the Bush Administrations power: 2002 - 2004.

There's this guy who came down to testify before congress named James Comey, who was John Ashcroft's #2 at the Department of Justice. He has a story to tell about how in early 2004, the DoJ's Office of Legal Council (OLC) was about to renege on a far-out legal rationale made for some covert program in the aftermath of 9/11. Experts presume this is the NSA wiretapping scheme, but there's a cloud of secrecy about "the program", so nobody knows for sure.

What ever it was, it was intense. Comey says after this decision was made, Ashcroft was sick, in the hospital, not anywhere near working, and that's when the White House found out about the change of opinion from the DoJ.

Bush called Ashcroft in his hospital bed, late at night, and Andrew Card (who you may know has been convicted of Obstruction of Justice around the Plame affair) and Alberto Gonzales (under fire for politically purging State Attorney Generals who were unwilling to prosecute bogus voter-fraud allegations) were coming down with some papers to sign. They were going around acting-attorney-general Comey to a bedridden John Ashcroft to change the DoJ's LOC opinion:

Now, that's John "I Invented the Remix" Ashcroft, and Team Bush is leaning on him while he's stuck in the hospital. My dawg Glenn Greenwald breaks down why it's so fucked up. Apparently the whole top level, including Comey and Ashcroft, were ready to resign if "the program" went on.

Newsweek covered this a while ago and lays out the legal drama in the context of the DoJ's OLC and authorizations for torture and detention. It's a well written article and has a lot of good background.

UPDATE: Here's John Stewart following the Gonzales/Card/Comey/Ashcroft thread:

The Orwellian twisting of thoght jumps out at me again, and the fact that this is coming from within the administration, from conversations between erstwhile comrades, makes it all the more creepy. After the incident in Ashcroft's hospital room, Comey testifies that Card called him up, livid, wanting him to come down to the White House immediately. Comey replied that he wouldn't do so without a witness, "given the conduct that he'd just seen." Card's reply was "what are you talking about? We were just there to wish him well." Doubleplusgood, Andy! Did you bring flowers?

And in the Newsweek article, which is from back in February, look at how the Bush Administration denies any rumor that there were internal divisions:

For its part the White House denies any internal strife. "The proposition of internal division in our fight against terrorism isn't based in fact," says Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney. "This administration is united in its commitment to protect Americans, defeat terrorism and grow democracy."

They're united to protect us, defeat them, and free the shit out of everybody else. I know this is a spokesperson, and their native professional language is the Press Release, but I do find this kind of thing both creepy and sad. This kind of casual mis/dis-honesty makes me more inclined to believe darker theories about what the White House was up to. Digby:

How over-the-top must this have been for staunch Republican John Ashcroft to have risen from his ICU bed to argue against it and the entire top echelon of the DOJ were preparing to resign? These are not ordinary times and the law enforcement community has not been particularly squeamish about stretching the Bill of Rights. None of those people are bleeding heart liberals or candidates for the presidency of the ACLU. For them to be this adamant, it must have been something completely beyond the pale.

My suspicion has always been that there was some part of this program --- or an entirely different program --- that included spying on political opponents.

There are worse scenarios, but the implications of a State under one-party rule focusing the apparatuses of national security on their political opposition -- in a time of war during a patriotic media frenzy -- gives me the fucking willies, man. I mean, where do you go from there?

And on the other side, we've got more lukewarm Cream of Wheat from that reliably non-fascist alternative, the Democratic Party. Sigh.