I don’t know why this isn’t bigger news: former Deputy Attorney General James Comey gave a gripping account of Alberto Gonzales’ attempt to take advantage of the Attorney General Ashcroft’s critical illness–the man was hospitalized, medicated and in great pain–to push through a Justice Department authorization of the NSA wiretap program (which the Department had already refused to authorize). Both the ailing Ashcroft and then acting AG Comey stood their ground against the administration’s brow-beating. A few story highlights from Slate:

Ashcroft and Comey agreed with this assessment that the program as it existed was illegal. Immediately after discussing this with Comey, Ashcroft went into the ICU at George Washington Hospital with acute pancreatitis, and Comey became acting attorney general. [About a week later,] Comey got a call from Ashcroft’s chief of staff, who said that although Mrs. Ashcroft had “banned all visitors” from her husband’s room in the ICU, where he was in his sixth day, a call had just come to his hospital room indicating that Gonzales, then White House counsel, and Andy Card, then Bush’s chief of staff, were on their way…

Comey made frantic calls to his own chief of staff and to Robert Mueller, then FBI director, while he raced to the hospital, sirens blasting. He sprinted up the stairs of the hospital to get to Ashcroft’s room before Gonzales and Card did.

“I was concerned about how ill he was,” Comey explains, afraid “that they were trying to overrule me.” He paints a picture of “a darkened room, and Mrs. Ashcroft standing beside the bed.” Comey says he “tried to orient” Ashcroft, but that it “wasn’t clear I’d succeeded…”

“Within minutes,” Gonzales and Card came barreling in, carrying an envelope. Inside was the reauthorization for the surveillance program, which they wanted Ashcroft to sign. Ashcroft raised his wan head from the pillow and clearly said he wouldn’t, adding, “I am not the attorney general. That’s the attorney general.” He pointed to Comey.

Gonzales and Card left.

It took a resignation threat from Comey, Comey’s chief of staff, Ashcroft’s chief of staff and FBI director Mueller to get the White House to back down. Bush agreed to let the Justice Department recommend changes, but continued to operate the unauthorized, illegal program in the interim.

Through this story and others that have come out during the Gonzales hearings, I have gained a renewed respect for the sense of fairness, professionalism, and dedication that many in the DOJ exhibit. I have a grudging respect for John Ashcroft that I never thought I could muster. But I can tell you this much: Alberto Gonzales has none of these admirable attributes. The law is not in place to protect individuals but is something to be twisted and manipulated and when, convenient, ignored altogether–all in the pursuit of power. And by extension, for our President to appoint such a creature to the head of the Justice Department demonstrates that he, too, has little respect for the rule of law.

More Evidence:

A former director and career DOJ veteran says Department’s Independence ‘Shattered.’

Update: I’m doing this story little justice–if you’re at all intrigued, you really should watch Comey’s testimony and here his telling of it (via The Daily Dish). This has all the elements of a great story: he’s the honest, devoted cop, loyal to his ailing superior and willing to stand on his integrity against corruption in the highest places. The audience is sick of dark, cynical stories, and we’ve been given our clean cut hero to contrast the with the sinister Gonzales. In this image-sensitive and hyperlinked age, this has to be what brings Attorney General’s house of cards down.