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I consider Sidney Blumenthal's weekly column a must-read, along with Gene Lyons weekly column and Joe Conason's two per week. This week, Blumenthal advises Congress to Follow the e-mails Salon 03/29/07.

This sounds about right to me:

The rise and fall of the Bush presidency has had four phases: the befuddled period of steady political decline during the president's first nine months; the high tide of hubris from Sept. 11, 2001, through the 2004 election; the self-destructive overreaching to consolidate a one-party state from 2005 to 2006, culminating in the repudiation of the Republican Congress; and, now, the terminal stage, the great unraveling, as the Democratic Congress works to uncover the abuses of the previous six years. (my emphasis)

Yes, even though there are as yet no blowjobs in play, the wheels are coming off the Cheney-Bush administration. Oh, and the e-mail via the Republican National Committe ploy is yet another little problemita for Dear Leader's regime:

When I worked in the Clinton White House, people brought in their personal computers if they were engaged in any campaign work, but all official transactions had to be done within the White House system as stipulated by the Presidential Records Act of 1978. ... Having forsaken the use of Executive Office of the President e-mail, executive privilege has been sacrificed. Moreover, Rove's and the others' practice may not be legal.

Blumenthal also makes an accurate and important observation about the way in which this administration (and to a large extent the whole Republican Party) has come to regard the Party as the highest authority: "He [Bush] treats the Democratic Congress as basically illegitimate." And to today's Republican Party, it is illegitimate. Because the Republican Party is now their highest reference point for legitimacy. Not the Constitution, not the law, but the Party.

Tags: authoritarianism, bush, bush administration, sidney blumenthal

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