Senator Pat Leahy led the first real oversight hearings with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who did his best to dodge and weave. Finally Leahy let Gonzales have it, blasting him over the treatment of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was detained and sent to Syria, where he was regularly tortured for almost a year before being released uncharged.

"We knew damn well if he went to Canada he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held and he'd be investigated. We also knew damn well if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured."

Paul Krugman of the NY Times joins us in declaring a Constitutional Crisis:

The broader context is this: defeat in the midterm elections hasn’t led the Bush administration to scale back its imperial view of presidential power.

On the contrary, now that President Bush can no longer count on Congress to do his bidding, he’s more determined than ever to claim essentially unlimited authority — whether it’s the authority to send more troops into Iraq or the authority to stonewall investigations into his own administration’s conduct.

The next two years, in other words, are going to be a rolling constitutional crisis.

Senator Joe Biden has also warned repeatedly about a Constitutional Crisis, including his appearance Thursday on Hardball: 

MATTHEWS:  Let me ask you about a constitutional question, Senator.  Stephen Hadley was on “Meet The Press” this weekend and sort of dodged the question.  Should the president be required to get the approval of Congress before he attacks Iran, should he decide to do so? 

BIDEN:  Absolutely, positively, unequivocally.  I have a second resolution—a law actually—that I‘m in the process of drafting.  I will be seeking bipartisan support, making it clear that the authorization for the use of force that the president got three-and-a-half years ago does not—emphasize does not—give him the authority to attack Syria or Iran.  That would be a disaster.

MATTHEWS:  But you don‘t expect him to sign that bill, do you? 

BIDEN:  No, I don‘t, but I expect it to generate a constitutional crisis were he to ignore it and to, in fact, him—for then attack Iran.

Biden is drafting legislation to prohibit military action against Iran or Syria under the terms of the 2002 Authorization of Military Force that Bush violated to invade Iraq on false pretenses. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also drew a line in the sand on Iran, saying "The President does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional authorization."

Bush is pushing us to the brink of war with Iran because they refuse to cooperate with Bush on a variety of issues. But in 2003, Dick Cheney rejected an offer of broad cooperation from Iran, according to Colin Powell's Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson.

CactusPat wants to impeach Bush for firing his own U.S. Attorneys who are investigating Republican crimes:

Now it it's grown to the Bush cabal dumping five to ten US Attorneys, replacing them with Repugnant cronies and bypassing the Senate confirmation process by taking advantage of a little known provision of the Patriot Act likely inserted last minute by none other than former Senate Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter

Dave Lindorff calls Bullshit on Bush's shell game to "legalize" his illegal NSA wiretapping:

Clearly Bush is hoping that the problem will now go away; that the Congress will drop plans to seriously investigate the five-year illegal NSA spying campaign he illegally ordered up. Indeed, the Justice Department has reportedly already gone to the Court of Appeals to request that the federal case finding the spying to be illegal, currently on appeal by the government, be "mooted," or ruled no longer at issue because of their new decision to operate within the law. No doubt similar arguments will be made to the House and Senate intelligence and justice committees...

What do they take us for, idiots?

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is no idiot, and he wrote Gonzales to demand "a full briefing to Committee Members on changes in the Administration's NSA wiretapping program." He asked for "copies of the new court orders, under classified cover, so that we may be better informed on the new program." Gonzales is trying to keep the court orders away from Congress because they violate the FISA law by having a single judge grant blanket approval to wholesale wiretapping of potentially millions of innocent citizens, rather than having the FISA Court approve individual warrants for true terrorism suspects.

The Boston Globe now estimates the purely monetary cost of the Iraq War at $2 trillion

after factoring in long-term healthcare for wounded US veterans, rebuilding a worn-down military, and accounting for other unforeseen bills and economic losses, according to a new analysis to be presented today in Boston.

[..]The figure is more than four times what the war was expected to cost through 2006 — around $500 billion, according to congressional budget data.

The new study is billed as a detailed analysis not only of the potential costs of sustaining the operation in Iraq for at least several more years, but also the expenses likely to be incurred by taxpayers long after US troops withdraw.

The LA Times says purely military costs have increased from $4.4 billion per month in 2003 to $8.4 billion per month.

Senator Chuck Hagel is trying to stop Bush from escalating the Iraq Occupation over the opposition of Congress. He told Wolf Blitzer "this is not a monarchy."

PBS NOW tells the story of U.S. soldiers going back to Iraq for their second and third tours, which is pushing our military to the breaking point.

ThinkProgress reports the Pentagon unveiled new rules for detainee trials “that could allow terror suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsay testimony and coerced statements.”

Meanwhile, House Democrats blew away Kos's objection that Democrats must "prov[e] we can govern" before we can begin impeachment, by completing their 100-hour agenda in 42 hours.