The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to authorize more subpoenas in the U.S.A. purge. Five of the subpoenas are targeting Justice Department officials.

In the wake of this growing scandal, we also find out from Murray Waas that Bush worked to shut down another investigation that may have targeted Gonzales:

Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration’s warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.

Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work.

It is unclear whether the president knew at the time of his decision that the Justice inquiry — to be conducted by the department’s internal ethics watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility — would almost certainly examine the conduct of his attorney general.

Yes – the showdown is heating up. The next big question is rather the White House will let Karl Rove testify. If he doesn’t I would accept that as an admission of guilt from Bush and that is grounds to immediately start impeachment hearings.