As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case.

Today, attorney George T. Manning, representing former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, rescinded his prior confirmation that Ms. Miers would attend the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Thursday in response to a subpoena and would assert executive privilege to certain questions posed by the Committee, as directed by the President.

President Bush on Tuesday said, "My mind changed on September the 11th, 2001. It changed because I realized the biggest responsibility government has is to protect the American people from further attack, and that we must confront dangers before they come to hurt us again. That's one of the really valuable lessons of September the 11th -- is to recognize that oceans can't protect us from an enemy that is ideologically driven and who will use murder as a tool to achieve their political objectives. Some in America don't believe we're at war, and that's their right.

Remember when Chertoff blamed the media for his failing during Hurricane Katrina? Download (1501) | Play (1287) Download (1605) | Play (684) (small file) What gives Chertoff the right to tell the country that he has a “gut” feeling that we’re going to be hit with a terrorist attack this summer? “Summertime seems to be appealing to them,” he said of al-Qaeda. “We do worry that they are rebuilding their activities.” Still, Chertoff said there are not enough indications of an imminent plot to raise the current threat levels nationwide.

Republican presidential candidate

Senior U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here. The White House has convened an urgent multi-agency meeting for Thursday afternoon to deal with the new threat.

Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona said that Bush administration officials tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports.

Two senior Justice Department officials said yesterday that they kept Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales apprised of FBI violations of civil liberties and privacy safeguards in recent years.

Centrist policies appeal to the American public but do not fit the military reality of Iraq.

The Republican lawmaker from Louisiana has a long and impressive record of using the power of the law to impose moral righteousness.

Shouldn't it concern us that Republicans are constantly talking about how people will all wise up when the next terrorist attack at home comes? I mean, they really seem to be looking forward to it, and they take great delight in the thought that, by God, people will see things differently when it happens. They relish the thought. They hunger for that terrorist attack they need to save their Party. I, Not Atrios, think Democrats would be wise to talk on TV about how the last thing we need is to put people in power who have such a stake in having terrorists attack Americans.

We didn’t need any further proof that Congressional Republicans really don’t give a damn about the troops or their families but we just got it in the United States Senate anyway. Just moments ago, Senate Republicans succeeded in a filibuster in which they refused to end debate on Virginia Democrat Jim Webb's S. 2012, which would have placed strict limits on National Guard and reserve deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as mandating more downtime at home before active-duty combat troops are returned to battle. The vote was 56-41 to end debate, with 60 votes needed to move to a full, up-or-down vote on the Webb measure.

From a half dozen Republicans close to the campaign here is, best I can tell, what happened: Republicans close to Sen. John McCain said today that McCain was under "enormous pressure" by friends and advisers outside the campaign to fire campaign manager Terry Nelson because these advisers felt that Nelson was incapable of containing campaign spending and refused to run a more efficient campaign. These Republicans also said that Nelson first considered resigning ten days ago when the campaign reported a disappointing second quarter campaign tally and was left with only $2M on hand.

Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional committee the officials repeatedly tried to weaken public health reports because of political considerations.

Former White House political director Sara M. Taylor told a congressional panel Wednesday that she did not talk to or meet with President Bush about removing federal prosecutors before eight of them were fired.

A former senior White House aide told the Senate Judiciary Committee today that she never spoke or met with President Bush about plans to fire a group of U.S. attorneys last year.