(updated below -- w/transcript)

As I detailed yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee held an FBI oversight hearing yesterday and several of its members, including Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller about the glaring holes in the FBI's anthrax case against Bruce Ivins. While some of the questions that were posed were good ones, virtually no answers were forthcoming from Mueller, a process that -- yet again -- made a mockery out of the Congress and its duty of oversight. That process repeated itself today when Mueller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

After the House hearing, I spoke with Rep. Nadler regarding the Director's testimony, the reasons that Congress has been generally so passive and worthless in its oversight duties and what, if anything, the Democrats planned to do or could do to rectify this and restore some checks and balances over the Executive Branch. We also discussed how these issues would likely play out depending on which party occupies the White House after 2008.

The discussion was roughly 12 minutes (he was pressed for time), and a transcript will be posted shortly (it's now here). The interview can be heard by clicking PLAY on the recorder below.

The way in which Congress has allowed itself to be ignored and rendered powerless, and specifically the way in which its oversight instruments are routinely ignored without consequence, will have repercussions far beyond the Bush administration. That behavior is institutionalizing the idea that political officials in general can simply immunize themselves from investigation and all other checks, and that nothing will be done even in response to serious wrongdoing and illegality.

As KagroX notes today, the announcement yesterday by Gov. Sarah Palin that she and her top-level employees will now simply ignore subpoenas and other requests for information as part of the bipartisan "Troopergate" investigation being conducted by the Alaska State Senate -- an investigation with which she previously vowed to cooperate fully -- is a prime example of, as Kagro put it, Palin's "doing the full Cheney": "government is no longer about law. It's about physics. Subpoena? Well, I'm not going unless you can actually drag me in there." Palin has exhibited as clearly as can be that she will follow in these lawless footsteps. One can blame the political officials who stonewall investigations of this sort and ignore legal process, but ultimately -- as I discuss with Rep. Nadler -- the real blame lies with the Congress for failing to defend its institutional prerogatives and compel adherence to the law.

Finally, on a related note, today is Constitution Day, and the ACLU -- following up on its new campaign to try to inject these issues into the presidential campaign -- is hosting an online symposium on the Constitution on its "Blog of Rights" blog. Sen. Russ Feingold has a contribution here, and I've written a piece on free speech and assembly rights in the context of what took place at the political conventions in Denver and St. Paul this year, which can be found here.

UDPATE: The transcript of the discussion with Rep. Nadler is here.