High Drama -- and High Crimes?

"SCHUMER: Thank you. Now, let's go to the next day, which was March 12. Can you tell us what happened then?

"COMEY: I went to the Oval Office -- as I did every morning as acting attorney general -- with Director Mueller to brief the president and the vice president on what was going on on Justice Department's counterterrorism work.

"We had the briefing. And as I was leaving, the president asked to speak to me, took me in his study and we had a one-on-one meeting for about 15 minutes -- again, which I will not go into the substance of. It was a very full exchange. And at the end of that meeting, at my urging, he met with Director Mueller, who was waiting for me downstairs.

"He met with Director Mueller again privately, just the two of them. And then after those two sessions, we had his direction to do the right thing, to do what we. . . .

"SCHUMER: Had the president's direction to do the right thing?

"COMEY: Right. We had the president's direction to do what we believed, what the Justice Department believed was necessary to put this matter on a footing where we could certify to its legality. And so we then set out to do that. And we did that."

What was that direction? What precisely changed about either the program or its rationale? Three years later, we still don't know.

Gonzales Watch

Rachel Van Dongen writes for Roll Call (subscription required) that "instead of running out of steam as Gonzales stubbornly hangs on to his job, the investigation into what Democrats call the 'politicization of the Justice Department' shows absolutely no signs of faltering on Capitol Hill.

"In fact, after ex-Deputy Attorney General James Comey's dramatic testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning, the probe instead may be gaining momentum."

Richard B. Schmitt writes in the Los Angeles Times that Comey's testimony "added fuel to the debate about whether Gonzales is fit to run the Justice Department.

"'I would say what happened in that hospital room crystallized Mr. Gonzales' view about the rule of law: that he holds it in minimum low regard,' Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a leading Gonzales critic, said at the hearing. 'It's hard to understand after hearing this story how Atty. Gen. Gonzales could remain as attorney general, how any president -- Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative -- could allow him to continue.' . . .

"At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that Bush has 'full confidence in Alberto Gonzales.' He refused to discuss Comey's testimony, which he described as 'old conversations.'