Tin-Pot "Democracy"

A reminder, from one of the bloggers who impugned the antiwar left in the run up to the war:

But when you have an unhinged, incompetent fanatic in power, unable to recognize let alone govern reality, sometimes you have to pick the least worst option. And when the "conservatives" explode entitlements, lose wars, legalize torture, violate the Constitution or abuse it for electioneering, what's a real conservative supposed to do? Sometimes, punishing a party for its betrayal of core principles is a necessary act of cleansing.

Yes, he's a Republican, albeit a gay, English-immigrant Republican (still no movement in the Texas wing of the party). What he's talking about can be seen in the testimony given by Sara Taylor last week, which I've been meaning to post for days now. It is a rather shocking spectacle and will remain in my memory as one of those pitch-perfect metaphors for our current government:

SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY: And then you said, "I took an oath to the President, and I take that oath very seriously." Did you mean, perhaps, that you took an oath to the Constitution?

SARA TAYLOR: I ahh, ahh, I--yes. Yeah, you're correct; I took an oath to the Constitution, but what--

LEAHY: Did you take a second oath to the President?

TAYLOR: I did not. What I should have said--

LEAHY: So the answer was incorrect.

TAYLOR: The answer was incorrect. What I should have said was I took an oath, I took that oath seriously, and I believe that taking that oath means that I need to respect, and do respect, my service to the President.

LEAHY: No, the oath is that you take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. That is your paramount duty. I know the President refers to the govenment as being his government, but it's not. It's the government of the people of America. Your oath is not to uphold the President, nor is mine to uphold the Senate. My oath, like your oath, is to uphold the Constitution.

President, Führer, constitution. It's all the same, right?