Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified today that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program monitoring the international calls and e-mails of millions of Americans, allegedly when terrorism is suspected.

The department's Office of Professional Responsibility announced earlier this year it could not pursue an investigation into the role of Justice lawyers in crafting the program, under which the National Security Agency intercepts some telephone calls and e-mail without court approval, according to the Associated Press. At the time, it could not obtain security clearance to examine the classified program because it was blocked by the President himself.

Under sharp questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, Gonzales said that Bush would not grant the access needed to allow the probe to move forward.

"The president of the United States makes the decision," Gonzales told the committee, during a hearing in which he was strongly criticized on a range of national security issues by Specter and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the panel's senior Democrat.

Washington Post Early Version: Bush Blocked Eavesdropping Probe

So, the buck stops with the "Texas Soufle." He will have to answer for it, preferably before a Senate trial with a Democratic majority after the November mid-term elections. Remove him from office. Put him in jail. That's the choice, and maybe what shows the world America is a society based on laws, not religious mouthings and alliances.