Banana Republic of America

George W. Bush may have miraculously converted Maureen Dowd's siblings out of the GOP, but Alberto Gonzales has performed the equally impressive miracle of convincingly portraying the U.S. government as being far behind Nigeria and Tajikistan in its standards of honesty and competence. The completely inevitable documentary evidence that totally contradicts what Gonzo told Congress under oath has taken remarkably little time to surface.

Even after the past six and a half years of outrage fatigue, Gonzo's testimony on Tuesday managed to astonish, with its profound new depths of banal alienation from intelligence, judgment, or American values. Watch the special edition here, thanks to Talking Points Memo.

At this point we all might want to check with our members of Congress and see if they perceive any remaining reason why they should not have Gonzo prosecuted for perjury and contempt, and/or impeached. Preferably both, of course. Congress has a legal and constitutional duty to make that happen.

It's just an added bonus though that this will also mean a new sheriff taking over the reigns of the Justice Department; how many and various are the benefits that would come from that, are left as an exercise for the student.

In other devastating news, the Washington Post is running a tremendous op-ed piece by two former Reagan officials, pouring the wrath of God and Thomas Jefferson all over George Bush for Waffling On Torture. Really, if there is any one thing you would ever not want your leader to waffle over, wouldn't "we shouldn't torture people" come near the top of the list?

The money quote: "Policymakers should also keep in mind that violations of Common Article 3 are 'war crimes' for which everyone involved -- potentially up to and including the president of the United States -- may be tried in any of the other 193 countries that are parties to the conventions."