This is a scandal.

* digby:

"This is a scandal. The administration is firing federal prosecutors for no reason and putting their cronies in office without senate confirmation to get them through the next two years. They are working with political operatives to intimidate law firms into not representing terrorist suspects. They are, once again, undermining the spirit of our constitution and our legal system as they have been doing since they took office in 2000. The country voted for oversight last November to put the brakes on just this kind of behavior.

The administration is not acting like people who believe they can prevail if they play by the rules set forth in our legal system. Or maybe it's just another outright power grab by the executive branch. Either way, it's the latest in a long line of constitutional outrages and the congress must thoroughly investigate it and expose it to the public. The Republicans are trying to set new precedents with this stuff and it will only work if the Democrats fail to step in and say no.

We need immediate hearings on this issue."

* digby:

"Nixon said, "when the president does it, that means it's not illegal." Bush and Cheney obviously agree with that. (Cheney said it outright with respect to the Boland Amendment.) If he persists in being completely impervious to public criticism or congressional pressure, the only thing the congress can do to stop him is withhold funds or impeach him. That's it. It remains to be seen if they have the stomach for it. "

* michael ledeen:

"The polls that the regime itself takes show upwards of 70 percent of the people wanting regime change. So why not? I mean, it ought to work. "

i never thought i'd agree with him.

* jeff @largely:

"America has become a mirror image of Julius Caesar's Rome: we're a militaristic dictatorship disguised under a cheap beard and plastic eyeglasses as a republic.

The courts have spoken. The congress has spoken. The people have spoken. None of that makes no never-mind to our present day tyrant.

The only real difference between Julius Caesar and George W. Bush is that Caesar knew how to use his military successfully."

* ledeen:

"I want to declare (Iranian) regime change to be policy. I want to support the pro-democracy groups in Iranian society, which includes like 80 percent of the population. I want to support them politically and financially if they want it. I want to broadcast at them, exactly as we did into the Soviet empire during the Cold War. I want to replicate Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which we're really not doing. I mean, they pretend to do it, but they really don't. Farsi service on [the Voice of America] is sort of a replica of CBS News or something like that. They want to be balanced; they give both sides."

lol.