I can see why the administration has tried to keep Addington away from the cameras as much as possible. The absolute contempt he held for the elected members of Congress, the very idea of the hearings, and for anyone who isn't a neocon practically oozed out of his every pore. Both he and Yoo did everything they could to obfuscate and avoid giving a direct answer to any question.

Addington is just a contemptible slug. He has no respect for anyone who isn't part of his agenda. The idea that in a republic, ideas are supposed to be debated and not just decided under a cloak of secrecy is a foreign concept to him.

As a rule, I try to avoid Godwinning the Fray, but after watching some of his testmony, I think Addington would have been perfectly comfortable working under Hermann Goering.

Like the terrorists the purport to protect us against, W's inner sanctum is riddled with dangerously ignorant and self-righteous people, which our country still saw fit to re-elect in '04. Goerhing-itis is a perrenial human disorder; lamentable but dismissable when recognized. There's a W in every generation; fortunately we usually know better than to give him the proverbial key to the city.

On the other hand...societal apathy coupled with innumerate fear -- like being blown up by terrorists versus, say, the likelihood of dying of heart disease related to obesity, or legitimate fears relating to global climate change) -- this has me deeply concerned.

W's people aren't ignorant - they're perfect. Perfectly anti-American. His entire agenda is to take money from you, the stupid person, and give it to his cronies - the top 0.1% of wage earners. Anyone who questions this plan is wrong; anyone who has a different idea is ignorant and will see the error of their ways eventually. W genuinely believes he will be vindicated by history.

I talk to God also. God told me that W's the worst president in the history of this country. Isn't it ironic that foreign policy and the economy - the two supposedly greatest Republican strengths - are the two areas in which Dubbya has managed to fail spectacularly?

Bush failed at pretty much everything he ever did.

Goering was the head of the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force. Could you possibly mean Goebbels? I love it when the intellectual elite garbles their message.

RANGER 82:

Goering was the head of the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force. Could you possibly mean Goebbels? I love it when the intellectual elite garbles their message.

Yeah, that completely undermines my entire point.

I love it when smugly arrogant elite try to distract away from the main point by focusing on a trivial error because they know they have nothing to stand on.

It wouldn't be Goebbels either, History Guy. More likely, the arrogant prick Addington would service, in his unclean way, der Fuhrer directly. This consistent with his craven,amoral service to The One That Runs The Show, Cheney. The slimy bastard wouldn't lower himself by working for anybody but The Main Man. Hopefully, they'll stand next to each other in front of the firing squad they so badly need to expunge this planet of their stain. .22s with a couple of hundred wounding shots and no coup d'grace would begin to re-balance The Scales of Justice. Free worldwide satellite broadcast would show that we actually do know how to clean our own dirty laundry.

Hey Ranger, history is not your strong point. Garble this. Hermann Göring was Hitler’s second in command, but did a lot more despicable things than run the Luftwaffe. Göring was one of the key figures in the process of "forcible coordination" that established the Nazi dictatorship. For example, in 1933, Göring banned all Roman Catholic newspapers in Germany as a means of removing not only resistance to National Socialism but also to deprive the population of alternative forms of association and means of political communication.

In the Nazi regime's early years, Göring served as minister in various key positions at both the Reich level and at other levels as required. For example, in the state of Prussia, Göring was responsible for the economy as well as re-armament.

His police forces included the Gestapo, which he converted into a political spy force. But in 1934 Hitler transferred the Gestapo to Himmler’s SS. Joseph Goebbels was Hitler’s propaganda minister, but Göring was a better henchman, much like Himmler. Addington certainly has the neocon arrogance and malice to fit right in with this bunch. I know you Bushies don’t like it, but the parallels to Dubya’s boys and the Third Reich just keep popping up.