For my money, the most remarkable part of James Comey's genuinely astonishing testimony comes when he rushes to John Ashcroft's hospital room to intercept Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales and got the director of the FBI to order the agents guarding Ashcroft to disobey Gonzales and Card if they demanded Comey's ejection. Think about the disarray in that administration: The President;s Chief of Staff and top legal advisor are rushing to jawbone the sedated attorney general who's recovering from surgery. The AG's #2 demands his driver turn on the sirens and lights so he arrives first, and anticipating a power play, gets the head of the FBI to sanction his presence.
Meanwhile, for those who remember the conviction undergirding conservative assurances that the eavesdropping was, like, totally legal, it's worth noting that a Republican-led Department of Justice almost saw mass resignations because it so clearly violated the law and they weren't willing to go down in history as the team that politicized the DoJ.
