The Attorney General of the United States, the Hon. Alberto Gonzales, known here by his nickname Abu Gonzo, dragged his feet on the way up to the Senate, much like a plainly guilty fourth-grader on his way to principal's office.  The miracle of this was that The Hon. Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, even entertained the idea of hearings, let alone caused them to be held.  Specter, we should remember, was fresh off winning re-election, having barely prevailed in the face of a White House-encouraged primary challenge from his right by the carpetbagging Chris Toomey (R-Club for Growth) when the NSA wiretap scandal broke.  That, and he had to deal, no doubt, with the fear of being beeyotch-slapped by Deadeye Dick and his Blackmail book.

When Gonzales arrived, he devoted most of his answers to not answering the few direct questions he received, intoning the need to fight terrorists and to have the tools to do so, and to soaking up the encomia showered upon his personage by the Administration's toadies on the Committee - Cormyn, Graham, and others.

Unfortunately, his prearranged script was, well, not fully accurate and, in this author's opinion, he perjured himself.

Last week, the New York Daily News broke the story that the President had asserted the right to open first-class mail, without a warrant, in another of those things he calls signing statements.  It's noteworthy it only took about 3 weeks (the statement slid under the door after the December 20 signing) for the press to catch up.

Today, it comes out that Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has written The Unit, demanding an answer to a very simple question:

 has your administration authorized any government agency to read Americans' first-class mail without obtaining a search warrant, complying with the applicable court order requirements of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or satisfying Postal Service regulations?

Abu Gonzo, sweatin' the testimony, went through the following as recounted by Feingold:

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in February 2006 on the National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping program, Senator Leahy asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales whether the executive branch was relying in other contexts on the theory that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force gave it the authority to violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and other statutes. Specifically, Senator Leahy asked: "Did it [the Executive Branch] authorize the opening of first-class mail of U.S. citizens?" The Attorney General attempted to avoid answering the question, but ultimately stated: "Senator, I think that, again, that is not what is going on here. We are only focused on communications, international communications, where one party to the communication is al Qaeda. That is what this program is all about."

If talking about going to Busch Gardens on a picnic is enough to justify turning Jose Padilla into furniture, Abu Gonzo deserves to go to prison for perjuring himself.