My candidate for most bizarre, or not, lead of the year:

A federal intelligence court judge earlier this year secretly declared a key element of the Bush administration's wiretapping efforts illegal, according to a lawmaker and government sources, providing a previously unstated rationale for fevered efforts by congressional lawmakers this week to expand the president's spying powers.

Call me crazy, but shouldn't "fevered efforts" be devoted to prosecuting criminals rather than rewritng the laws to protect them and then issue them Get out of jail free cards? Rule of law? Constitutional government? Nancy? Harry? Patrick? Kos? Anyone?

And--lambert blushes modestly--I called my shot on this one:

The real threat[in the FISA rewrite] is going to be some sort of retroactive legalization that one of Spector’s staffers, say, is going to tuck in under cover of darkness.

Why are the Democrats enabling Republican lawbreaking, when they should be prosecuting it?

NOTE Finally, WaPo puts a story on this on A01. That doesn't redeem their years of bad coverage, of course. The contrast with Steno Sue and Spiky back in those innocent days when it was all blowjobs, all the time, couldn't be greater.

NOTE Never mind that Minority Leader John "That's not pronounced Boner" Boehner revealed all this on FUX. IOKIYAR. And never mind that Rahm Emmanuel just snarked on that, instead of nailing Bush for breaking the law. That's just so weak. What's wrong with these people?