The drama at Ashcroft's bedside.

What We're Dealing With

By Rick Horowitz

"What conduct?" said the president's chief of staff to the acting attorney general. "We were just there to wish him well."

This was a lie.

By now, you've probably seen news of the dramatic visit to Capitol Hill by James Comey, the former number-two man at the Justice Department, and his account of a secret struggle at the highest levels of the Bush administration. As Comey described it to the Senate Judiciary Committee in sworn -- and still uncontradicted -- testimony, it's blood-chilling stuff:

How the Bush White House, so intent on pushing ahead with its domestic eavesdropping program in March of 2004, had tried to do an end-run around senior government officials who had raised objections to the program's legality.

How two of the president's closest aides journeyed one night to the hospital bed of a seriously ill and heavily sedated John Ashcroft to try to convince him to overrule his deputy and recertify the program as legal.

How Comey got word of the effort and raced to George Washington University Hospital to try to warn his boss and intercept the intruders.

How the two aides -- White House chief of staff Andrew Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales -- arrived just minutes later. How Gonzales, envelope in hand, started to explain the reason for their visit. And how, to Comey's astonishment, Ashcroft raised his head from his pillow and in no uncertain terms, told Card and Gonzales to back off.

"I was angry," Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man."

If you've got a functioning conscience, you'd be angry, too. (You might even wonder how it is that Alberto Gonzales -- first as White House counsel, and now as attorney general himself -- always seems to be on the scene whenever there's a limit to be pushed or a line to be crossed. Coincidence?)

But that's not even the part that jumped out at me.

The part that jumped out at me came later -- after Gonzales and Card, having gotten nowhere with Ashcroft, beat a hasty retreat from the hospital room. Comey soon received a phone call from Card, he testified. Card was angry, and demanding that Comey come to the White House immediately. Comey's reaction:

"I responded that, after the conduct I had just witnessed, I would not meet with him without a witness present. He replied, 'What conduct? We were just there to wish him well.'"

I'll pause while you try to catch your breath.

They even lie to their own. That's the lesson that comes screaming out of Comey's account -- they even lie to their own.

Gonzales and Card try to badger a sick man -- bad enough. They try to steamroll a deputy who is presumably every bit as committed to protecting the country's security as they are, but who simply insists that any domestic eavesdropping program be conducted within the framework of the law -- bad enough. But we've always suspected they were capable of that sort of thing. This crowd has never taken kindly to being questioned, let alone crossed, let alone prevented from doing exactly what they want to do, no matter what the issue is.

But when they're caught at it -- when even people on their own team, an Ashcroft or a Comey, call them on trying to cut corners -- they still don't admit it. They just make something up. Truth is for suckers. For wimps.

So you have to wonder: If they'll lie to their own, what are they willing to do to the rest of us?

Posted 5/17/07. Get award-winning commentary from syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz twice every week!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

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