The U.S. Constitution gives no one in the executive branch the power to defy Congress as it is doing in Ms. Goodling's case. Members of the executive branch are in office to carry out the president's orders, and the theoretical presidential powers are derived from his office, in which he/she is sworn to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.

There is another constitution involved here, the one written under our auspices for Iraq. That seems to be the constitution that the executive branch is following, and it allows for a great deal of corruption.

Al-Radhi [head of the Iraqi Public Integrity Commission] said the commission has investigated about 2,600 corruption cases since it was established in March 2004, a few months before the United States returned sovereignty to Iraq. He estimated $8 billion has vanished or been misappropriated.

Corruption in the country, while traditionally rampant, is encouraged by constitutional clause 136 B, al-Radhi said. It gives Cabinet ministers the power to block his investigations.

So far, he said, ministers have blocked probes into the theft or misspending of an estimated additional $55 million in public funds.

Under a constitution that allows for corruption to be imposed by corrupt officials, the WH cabal and is malfeasance in office is more easily explained. The level of corruption that is being visited on this country is not explicable under our own constitution, however. I shall have to let the Dallas Morning News know this. Its editorial calling to stop cutting funds for the offices of inspectors general assumes that the cretin in chief is operating under the U.S. Constitution.

Consider what the public has learned in only the past month from their work:

•The Justice Department inspector general revealed that the FBI had "seriously abused" its power by demanding private information from employers without court order, under the guise of investigating terrorism.

•The Pentagon inspector disclosed that four Army generals and five other officers knowingly made false statements about the friendly fire death of Cpl. Pat Tillman.

•Reports on the Smithsonian Institution led to the resignation of Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small, who had spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to support a luxurious personal lifestyle.

•The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction released a timeline showing how poorly the U.S. government planned and how Congress appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars for the effort with little or no clue how it was to be spent or accounted for.

This work is vital to assuring government integrity and efficiency. That's why we're chagrined to learn that proposed White House budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general's office could result in the reduction of staff in the Dallas office. That branch oversees EPA Region 6, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Its responsibilities not only include monitoring and implementing North Texas clean-air plans, but also overseeing part of the Hurricane Katrina and Rita cleanups. The fewer Dallas employees there are, the harder it is to scrutinize the EPA's work here.

[emphasis added]

For those of us in the circulation realm of the Dallas Morning News, it's nice to see its editorial staff beginning to exhibit enlightened attitudes. Calling for Gonzales' resignation was a high point recently.

The upholders and defenders of the U.S. Constitution are going to have to stand up for it, and that is increasingly hard to do without opposing the actions of the cretins in high office. I look forward to the first News editorial calling to impeach malfactors, and especially when it gets to the highest officeholder now violating the U.S. Constitution