D'oh!

From Thinkprogress:



But Cheney got a little sloppy during his interview with Larry King:



Q In that regard, The New York Times -- which, as you said, is not your favorite -- reports it was you who dispatched Gonzales and Andy Card to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft's hospital in 2004 to push Ashcroft to certify the President's intelligence-gathering program. Was it you?



THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't recall -- first of all, I haven't seen the story. And I don't recall that I gave instructions to that effect.



Q That would be something you would recall.


THE VICE PRESIDENT: I would think so. But certainly I was involved because I was a big advocate of the Terrorist Surveillance Program, and had been responsible and working with General Hayden and George Tenet to get it to the President for approval. By the time this occurred, it had already been approved about 12 times by the Department of Justice. There was nothing new about it.

Q So you didn't send them to get permission.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't recall that I was the one who sent them to the hospital.

D'oh! So according to Cheney, the dispute was about the TSP. Too bad Cheney doesn't understand that the dispute was really about certain intelligence activities authorized by the president of which the Terrorist Surveillance Program (i.e. the program publicly described by the president) was only an uncontroversial part. Why can't he keep that straight? It's so simple.

So lump Cheney in with FBI Director Bob Mueller, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and others who've been briefed on the NSA surveillance program and refer to a single program, called the TSP for a shorthand, which dates back to October, 2001 and is comprised of more than the limited facet acknowledged by the President.


The SJC needs to focus a timeline of events. Hmmm..

March 9, 2004: Comey told Leahy that during a March 9, 2004 meeting he attended at the White House, he told Cheney he would not reauthorize the surveillance program which, under federal law, the White House needed to do every 45 days.


March 9, 2004: Comey described in extraordinary detail how the March 9, 2004 meeting at the hospital unfolded.




March 10, 2004: White House sidestepped the judicial process and signed off on the program anyway, and continued to monitor American citizens' communications in what appeared to be a violation of the law.


March 12, 2004: Comey then told the committee about separate meetings he and FBI Director Robert Mueller had with President Bush. Comey met with the president first, he said, but would not disclose what was said during their meeting. After Mueller's session with President Bush, Mueller told Comey the president had given them "direction to do the right thing," Comey said. "We could certify its legality and then set out to do that," he said, in reference to altering the NSA program so that it satisfied the Justice Department's requirements for legality.

November 2004: Ashcroft turned in his resignation. During that time there was the CIA Leak investigation which he later recused himself after learning that Rove and Libby may have involvement according to FBI investigators.

November 10, 2004: Bush announced Gonzo's nomination as Attorney General.

February 2005: Gonzo was confirmed and sworn in as Attorney General.

March 2005: Comey announced his resignation.



How concidental. Comey was the acting Attorney General when Ashcroft was ill and took over leak investigation before Fitzgerald became Special Prosecutor. Was Gonzo put in the job as Attorney General for a personal and political agenda? You can answer that question.