It's Always Worse Than You Imagine…

…even taking account of the fact that it's always worse than you imagine.

Our friends are starting to notice the disturbing news coming out of the Senate hearings into possible misconduct in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)— in particular, the implications of the recent testimony by James Comey suggesting the President, in March 2004, sent his chief of staff (Andrew Card) and his chief counsel (now the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales) to pressure a heavily medicated John Ashcroft (then the Attorney General) into overruling the acting Attorney General (Deputy AG, James Comey) and sign off on reauthorizing the President's illegal domestic wiretapping program. Ashcroft refused and the President went ahead and ordered the program to continue without reauthorization from DOJ.

A lot of people are noticing where Comey said the entire senior leadership of the DOJ— including the director of the FBI, Robert Mueller— was ready to resign rather than reauthorize the domestic spying program. They're noticing that the program had been running for two years already (this was supposed to be a reauthorization) and, by then, it had become so heinous that even the Dread Sith Lord, John Ashcroft, couldn't stomach it anymore. They're also noticing that Comey later felt the need to bring Ted Olsen as a witness with him to the White House to speak with Card about resolving the crisis, and that Card wouldn't let Olsen into the room with him during the meeting.

The question keeps arising: what was so freaking horrific about the domestic spying program that even John Ashcroft couldn't abide it? Hence, the title of this post.

I mean… come on, now. You know what these thugs and criminals were doing. Do I have to spell it out for you?

Prepare yourself now. There's a non-zero probability that you will soon have to be swallowing down helpings of bad news about how the FBI became the private opposition research and black bag team for a whole slew of GOP election fraud games. You may find yourself learning that DOJ operatives have been using NSA wiretap transcripts for personal financial gain, maybe even sleazy sexual extortion in tight congressional races.

It is always worse than you imagine, even taking account of the fact that it is worse than you imagine.