The Phrase You're Groping For...

... is "checks and balances":

Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.

In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.

"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers' group.

When federal judges block the exercise of naked power by the executive branch of the federal government, there's always the danger that democracy and the rule of law might break out. If these federal judges are endangering national security, then we at Boring Diatribe have to ask what the hell we're trying to keep secure?

I'm sure we'll see the end of moronic comments like this from the Amateur General John Ashcroft, since the professional Torturer General is about to take over:

Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based group that represents families of some detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said that Gonzales's legal opinions "opened the door and paved the way" for abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"He's right in the middle of where this administration went off the page of the law and into chaos," Ratner said. "They're promoting someone who was one of the legal architects of the abuse. It's just appalling."

Yes Mike, yes it is. And the Democrats are rolling over for it, because, as Senator Charles Schumer (Craven-NY) says, Alberto Gonzales is "less polarizing" than Ashcroft. Only if your compass already points toward Hell, Chuck. There's a word for you and your kind: collaborator.