these jackboots were made for walkin’

Here we go. Game on.

Alberto Gonzales got bitch-slapped by Republicans and Democrats alike yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as it investigates the Bush Administration’s domestic spying program. Feeble excuses and shaky justifications were smacked down like a game of Whack-a-Mole on the midway – and not just by members of the minority.

George Washington did it, he protested.

Lindsay Graham and Chuck Hagel made Gonzales look like an L-One who didn’t do his homework for Contracts I. Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold made him look like an out-classed lightweight sparring a few rounds with George Foreman BEFORE the Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine came out.

In essence, Gonzales looked like the designated Bush flunky to dive onto this live grenade. And because he looked so feeble in the attempt, the administration pulled out the big gun. They unleashed Bush’s Brain. Turd Blossom is riding to the rescue.

Karl Rove is taking over.

News reports have the White House Deputy Chief of Staff threatening each and every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee with a blacklist if they vote against the administration. Sources say the blacklist would mean cutting off all White House political and financial support in November – never mind the fact that, with the way the tide is turning, the bigger, more effective threat would be to have TOTAL White House support.

According to a senior GOP congressional aide “It’s hardball all the way.”

As it stands, this won’t even be a close vote. Republicans, for a change, seem determined to uphold the Constitution of the United States and not their membership card in the Republican Party. This isn’t Sam Alito for the Supreme Court. This is a president violating the law and invading the private emails and telephone calls of millions of Americans – by definition.

In order to get the phone call and email intercepts, the NSA has to intercept ALL communications traffic. From there, they weed out traffic they’re not interested in and cultivate that in which they are. We’re supposed to trust them when they say they’re not really listening in – but then again, it all has to be run through their data mining software.

The Bush Administration is taking a great deal of damage on the issue and that damage could increase exponentially as the hearings continue to a conclusion that George W. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. If only two Senators vote against the president, the results could lead to eventual impeachment proceedings.

Rove has been twisting arms – and twisting hard. Every Republican on the committee has been summoned to Rove’s office, along with the leadership in Congress. Turd Blossom has been telling them all that voting against Bush would destroy his whole grand, Machiavellian Scheme for Republican domination for the next few decades. He’s been offering them plenty of free public television time in their November campaigns, lots and lots of money from Republican campaign coffers and plenty of photo ops with the president.

Say no and you’re on the blacklist.

The argument that opposing unwarranted surveillance is somehow soft on terrorism is a tough sell. “You’re with the President or you’re with Al Qaeda,” just isn’t going to work this time. Not when the NSA is intercepting letters to Aunt Fanny and IMs with porn sites while looking for terrorists.

And the fact that all this wiretapping has led to NO arrests is a trump card that has yet to be played. There is no court in the land that will allow evidence at trial that was initially obtained through domestic wiretapping.

It’s time to draw a line in the sand, Senators. Drop out of Republican lockstep and do your job.

More soon.