This is amazing. During an exchange on Capital Hill today between Senator Patrick Leahy and Steven Bradbury, legal council for the Department of Justice, Bradbury said that “the President is always right”. Here is the transcript compliments of Raw Story:

MR. BRADBURY: Well, Senator, I think — as I said in my testimony, obviously the court’s decision does not call into question our ability to hold detainees —

LEAHY: Not my question. The president said very specifically — and he said it to our European allies — he was waiting for the Supreme Court decision and that would tell him whether he was supposed to close Guantanamo or not. After, he said it upheld his position on Guantanamo. In effect, it actually said neither. Where did he get that impression?

BRADBURY: Well —

LEAHY: The president’s not a lawyer. You are. The Justice Department advised him. Did you give him such a cockamamie idea or what?

BRADBURY: Well, I try not to give anybody cockamamie ideas, and I —

LEAHY: Well, where’d he get the idea?

BRADBURY: Obviously — the Hamdan decision, Senator, does implicitly recognize that we’re in a war, that the president’s war powers were triggered by the attacks on the country, and that law of war paradigm applies. That’s what the whole — the whole case was about —

LEAHY: I don’t think the president was talking about the nuances of the law of war paradigm. He was saying that this was going to tell him whether he could keep Guantanamo open or not. Afterward, he said it said he could.

BRADBURY: Well, it’s —

LEAHY: Was the president right or was he wrong?

BRADBURY: It’s under the Law of War that we —

LEAHY: Was the president right or wrong?

BRADBURY: — the president is always right, Senator.

Think Progress also has the video available here.

This is the mentality of our very own Justice Department. They feel there is no wrong in Bush. This is something new, which is indicated by the fact the word “is” hasn’t been redefined. Congress should take this comment as a serious warning and realize they need oversight more than ever. No President is above the law and as soon as one thinks they are then they become a danger to our country.