Gonzales's resignation is the latest in a series of high-level departures that has reshaped the end of Bush's second term. Karl Rove, another of Bush's close circle of aides from Texas, stepped down two weeks ago.

McConnell also said telecom firms should have immunity from lawsuits. "If you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies," he said.

Almost six years after 9/11, it is inexcusable that — in an environment where TSA misses more than 90% of weapons, RON [aircraft left unattended and unlocked at night] aircraft are not secured, and ground employees are not screened — fewer than 2% of our airliners have a team of armed pilots aboard, fewer than 5% have air marshals, and the flight attendants have no mandatory tactical or behavioral assessment training. $24 billion dollars later, we are not materially safer, except in the areas of intelligence that prevent an attack from getting to an airport. Once at the airport, there is little reason to believe the attack won’t succeed.

Roberts said that because of Bush's unpopularity, the Republicans face a total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why "the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush's follies or the war, because they expect his unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next year's election."

"Americans think their danger is terrorists," said Roberts. "They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that."

Carmona, whose four-year term as surgeon general expired in 2006, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week that he was constantly at odds with Bush administration political minders. They told him not to speak out on stem cell research, emergency contraception or sex education. They delayed release of a report on the dangers of secondhand smoke. They admonished him to mention the president frequently and favorably in public and not to address a group associated with the Special Olympics - a cause championed by the Kennedy family ... That's no way to treat a professional whose main job is to help the president, the Congress and the American people make intelligent health decisions. But it's not surprising that in a nation polarized on so many fronts, a president is going to expect any appointee to sing from the administration-approved hymnal.