"We are today writing to express our extreme disappointment in the White House's rebuff of efforts by the Judiciary Committee to obtain voluntary cooperation with our investigation concerning the firing of at least nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 and related matters," they wrote. "We write to make one last appeal for such voluntary cooperation."

There is a point sometimes to the idea that people need unfettered access to opinions/information without someone going over their shoulder. That is not what we have here and it is not "politics as usual," as the White House is trying to claim. What has been going on at DoJ has the appearance of violating multiple federal statutes (the email mess, political standards in hiring career employees, removal of sitting political appointees amounting to obstruction of justice) for the purpose of violating still more federal statutes (Voting Rights Act of 1965 for starters).

What we are in the middle of watching is the systematic dismantling of the Constitution, transforming the country into a banana republic, and that's being charitable. Bush as Mussolini? That description may be accurate.