This Gonzales/Card visit to Ashcroft is beyond unbelievable

Yet, I wonder if Americans are once again yawning and wondering what else is on the tube. The President of the United States was pushing a wiretapping program that the Justice department under Ashcroft thought was illegal. They send Al Gonzales and Andy Card to Ashcroft's hospital bed the day after surgery to get him to over-ride the acting AG.

Just look at how scummy this is. Card and Gonzales show up with papers and try to get Ashcroft to sign. Ashcroft, to his credit, told them not only that the program was illegal but that he wasn't AG right now. He told them to go stuff it. Card and Gonzales don't even recognize Comey (acting AG) and leave the room. Card calls and demands a meeting late at the White House with the acting AG--a meeting that Comey agreed to only if he could bring a witness--after "the conduct" he had just witnessed. But this is the part that gets me. Andy Card says "What conduct? We were just there to wish him well."

See that? Card claims that he and Gonzales were just there to wish Ashcroft well, even though they were clearly trying to a) take advantage of a heavily medicated man and b) circumvent the acting, and therefore legal, AG. And after, he is so angry that he demands a late night meeting. But he was just there to wish Ashcroft well.

These people are as bad as we thought. And the fact that Gonzales was rewarded for amazingly bad behavior reflects incredibly badly on this President.

Updated: More from The Anonymous Liberal: Takeaways from the Ashcroft Hospital Bed Story

Updated again: More from Glenn Greenwald:

"Knowing about these events in Aschcroft's hospital room (because he was a key participant in them), Gonzales, with a straight face, insisted in February, 2006 that he would not allow Ashcroft or Comey to testify because 'you have to wonder what could Messrs. Comey and Ashcroft add to the discussion.' It is impossible to express how free they are of even the most minimal constraints to tell the truth."