The FBI enters the fray

First, the Pentagon carries on extraordinary surveillance of U.S. citizens.

Next, we learn of the NSA warrantless wiretaps and email intercepts.

Now, another agency, the FBI, is tarnished by the Bushling overzealousness. Here is WaPo's take.

A rationale will be offered by the Bushling supporters: It's wartime, and in wartime excesses are bound to happen. The problem is that the chief excuse, the War in Iraq, is one of the excesses. It was never a rightful part of a coherent defense of the country against extremist attacks. It was the first mistake, not the justification for all the rest.

There will be no end to the mounting disgrace because the Bush administration never had any notion of restraint, goaded on by Cheney, Rumsfeld and the neocons. Bush, never bright, never had a chance and was all too willing to mistake power for wisdom.

For a while, we'll have to watch the gathering evidence. Then, with any luck, a Republican Congress and weakened courts will step in.

It may only be a matter of time. Either the New Normal wins, or the country wins. We'll see.

Late updates: The NYT Editorial Board has already weighed in with the aptly titled The Fog of False Choices. The Washington Post opines in a wimpier critique, and George Will is wimpier still, though at least questioning, and that a conservative is questioning Bush might almost amount to if not a revolution then at least a blip. Oh, and Jonathan Alter rips Bush a new legal one in Newsweek.