Bush personally blocked eavesdropping probe

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

At the time, the office said it could not obtain security clearance to examine the classified program.

Under sharp questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, Gonzales said that Bush would not grant the access needed to allow the probe to move forward.

"It was highly classified, very important and many other lawyers had access. Why not OPR?" asked Specter, R-Pa.

"The president of the United States makes the decision," Gonzales told the committee hearing, during which he was strongly criticized on a range of national security issues by Specter and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the panel's senior Democrat.

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Okay, this makes a lot more sense than that bogus security clearance story. When the news broke about that last May, my gut reaction was that it was some kind of political maneuver:

What we have here is one White House agency, the NSA, refusing to allow another White House agency, the Department of Justice, to investigate the former because the latter lacks security clearance: this could be cleared up in like five seconds by, surprise surprise, the White House.

So, it's not just that the White House could have cleared up the problem but didn't; it's that the White House is the problem. Really, how can the whole country not be disgusted by this? In the realm of outrageous political plays, it easily ranks up there with Nixon firing special Watergate investigator Archibald Cox because he was getting too close to the truth. I keep on saying that Bush has placed our Constitutional system in grave danger: this is but one example of how government mechanisms for self-correction have been completely dismantled by the White House.

Bush is the law now.

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