I’m with EW, I was surprised to find myself agreeing w/Specter, while listening. UNTIL, I realized his intent was to get Comey to state that BUSH DID NOTHING ILLEGAL.

Comey was extremely careful; he continued to say that the program could not be certified as legal. BUT agreed, that this did not mean that the program was therefore illegal.

I suspect, because bush invoked article 2 of the constitution (his executive war powers) as the rationale for the program, Comey was saying that the question of bush’s conduct was for others (the Supremes??) to determine.

However, for we non-lawyers, if the DOJ “could not certify the program’s basis in law” it sure seems like the program’s operation was illegal.

Help us out lawyers, why else did Specter keep insisting on Comey’s opinion of the legality of bush’s (not of the program’s) conduct??

RevDeb @ 114

Russ asking about Comey’s farewell address where he was urging the staff to follow the rule of law. What a novel concept with the crooks in the WH!

Snarlin is leaving the hearing. Good.

I don’t think I am allowed to write here what I think of Snarlin’ Arlen. For a former DA, he is a total asshat. Talk about not caring about the law. Everything that comes out now just makes him look like a bigger turdblossom because he was Judiciary chair while all this was going on.

The only reason Specter is where he is is because he helped out with the renegade GOP-right-wing-Texas oil coup d’etat of November 1963 that gave the government of the USand a large amount of the money in the US Treasury to Texans from then until now.

His idiotic ‘Magic Bullet” theory provided the only out for the people so despearately trying to convince the AAmerican people there was no conspiracy in that mess.

He needed to be gone a long, long time ago but heaven forbid…who believes a conspiracy theory, right?

Excuse me, but is this the end of the testimony for today?

Very grateful to ew and you all for live blogging this — many of us on the west coast missed most of it.

And if you work evenings and sleep in for some strange reason you miss ALL of it. Damnnit!

j.cro @ 94

Totally OT here, but did anyone read the story about McNulty’s resignation?

Did anyone else think the following thing contradictory?

“McNulty said he will leave his post in late summer because of the “financial realities” brought on by “college-age children and two decades of public service.”

and then….

McNulty, 49, said in an interview that the political tumult over the prosecutor dismissals — including his role in providing inaccurate information to Congress — did not play a part in his decision. He said he has not lined up a job but is considering his options.

I mean, if financial reasons for you wanting to leave your job but you don’t have one lined up… that seems awfully fishy to me.

A little cognitive dissonance?

Abu throws McNulty under the bus.

Hi RevDeb – I saw that!! I guess Abu Gonz doesn’t realize how much worse he makes himself sound as a “manager” and such by these statements. I’m curious to hear McNulty’s rebuttals for sure.

What were the points of contention between Comey vs. Gonzo/Card/Cheney?

Did Bush (& Gonzo/Card/Cheney) get DoJ (Ashcroft/Comey) to sign off on resolved points of contention, then they ignored the agreement and spied illegally anyway?

Comey got antsy. Maybe they’ll ask in a closed door session.

According to Comey, (I think)( they went around As*croft via Preznit order, and then asked DoJ to legalize after the fact.
eff. electronic frontier foundation has some background papers on this. Like this (pdf)

RevDeb – this can only be the T*P due to the re-authorization of its LEGALITY every 45 days by the AG.

Comey is giving his, limited, view of what appears to be a post-hoc ‘authorization’ (back-handed ‘legitimization’) process for a program created outside the Constitution and Constitutional processes – the T*P – and done, instead, via Presidential Order, bootstrapped by the AUMF and Article II.

Comey refused to sign the ‘re-authorization’ line of the Presidential Order because the DoJ’s own Office of Legal Counsel said they couldn’t vouch for its legality.

Massive pressure came into play around the March 11th deadline to reauthorize:

- Ashcroft gets hospitalized
- Comey takes over as Acting-AG
- OLC (whose opinions are BINDING on the Executive Branch) advises Comey that the re-authorization can’t be certified as ‘legal.’
- Card and Gonzo decide to make an ‘end-run’ around Comey by going to the hospital to get Ashcroft’s signature instead of Comey’s
- Comey races to the hospital
- Comey and Ashcroft stand tall and refuse to sign at the hospital
- Bush(?) calls Comey to the White House, who brings Meuller with him
- Apparently, Bush tells Comey thru Meuller to make the changes needed to get DoJ happy with re-authorization
- About 2-3 weeks later the changes get made, and Comey (most probably) or Ashcroft (possibly) sign the Presidential Order certifying the Legality of ‘the Program.’

Can anyone fill us in on what “the changes” were? I understood that they proceeded with a spying program that did not require FISA court approval, even after the fact.

What were the points of contention between Comey vs. Gonzo/Card/Cheney?

Did Bush (& Gonzo/Card/Cheney) get DoJ (Ashcroft/Comey) to sign off on resolved points of contention, then they ignored the agreement and spied illegally anyway?