Charles Sheehan-Miles

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Domestic spying details revealed

The Washington Post ran a story yesterday that revealed more interesting information about the administration's massive spying domestic spying efforts. The story: after the Justice Department ruled the program illegal in 2004, the White House sent Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales over to the hospital to strong-arm John Ashcroft into reversing the decision.

I've been intensely interested in this issue for some time, and it is, after all, the main theme in my new book. What it says about the Bush White House is disturbing and is yet another indication that the President and his staff have little or no respect for the law. Whether the topic is torture, domestic spying, or the mundane incidents such as VA executives awarding themselves massive bonuses while hundreds of thousands of disability claims are backlogged in the system, this administration is as broken as any we've seen in recent decades.

Tom Ricks's inbox, also in the Post, reveals this interesting exchange between General Barry McCaffrey (my old division commander in the Gulf War) and Lawrence Di Rita, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's chief spokesman.  I've never been a huge fan of McCaffrey, but I have to admit, in recent years he's been growing on me, primarily because of his outspokenness when it comes to how the war has been managed.  He doesn't pull any punches, and unlike a lot of the more critical generals out there (Anthony Zinni excepted), he does not appear to be pushing a political agenda.

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