One of the diaries on the main page of RaisingKaine.com makes the argument that Mark Warner should run for governor instead of senate. I must say that I strongly disagree. We need that senate seat more than we need the governorship. Republicans can do far worse damage to this country and Virginia if they keep that senate seat than if they win the governorship. The reason is not because of our bare majority in the senate. We need that senate seat because we don't have anywhere near a majority in the senate. We need 60 senate seats to have a viable majority in the senate. And the importance of this has less to do with Iraq (assuming the president sworn into office in 2009 is a democrat) than it does with domestic policy.

The House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law has ruled 7 to 5 (along party lines) to essentially hold Harriet Miers in contempt of congress. The vote was actually to uphold the ruling of the chairwoman, Representative Linda T. Sánchez, that the assertion of executive privilege does not excuse Miers from answering the committee's questions. The matter will now move before the full committee. How pathetic. A failed Supreme Court nominee on the verge of being held in contempt of congress. The only thing more pathetic is that the President of the United States is ordering his past and present advisors to knowingly and willfully break the law. Calling this Nixonian doesn't even begin to describe it. Congress needs to not hold only Miers in contempt of congress. The congress needs to hold Fred Fielding, and George Bush, in contempt of congress.

You can see the new anti-Giuliani video, put out by the firefighters union, on youtube here and on the union's actual website, here. Kos needs to post this video on the main page. Everyone who reads this diary needs to send this video to everyone they know. This video needs to be sent to everyone, throughout the liberal blogosphere and beyond. It tells the truth about Giuliani, and his 9/11 record.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19685977/

According to breaking news on msnbc.com, Senator David Vitter actually used the DC Maddam's escort service. However, I have no doubt that as long as he cries "gay marriage! gay marriage!" when he is up for reelection in 2010, he will have no problem being reelected. Even if it turns out he slept with a gay prostitute, the voters in LA will proudly reelect him.

I am starting a new Roman History sub-series in my Hadrian's Forum series. This series, called "The Roman Kingdom," will be about the earliest form of government in ancient Rome. Most people are familiar with the Roman Empire. But Rome was officially an empire for less than half of its history. The Roman Empire lasted from 27 BC to 476 AD. But before that, from 510 BC to 27 BC, Rome was a constitutional, liberty-loving republic. And before that, from 753 BC (a date that is more legend than fact, but may be in the general range) to 510 BC, Rome was a Kingdom. Rome suffered under a horrible tyranny under the Kings. It was this tyranny that resulted in the overthrow of the Kingdom and the birth of the constitutional republic. But the legacy of that tyranny lives with us to this very day. It was that aversion to tyranny and autocracy that the Romans developed during the 8th, 7th and 6th centuries BC that the American founding fathers picked up on when they were founding the American republic. And it was this value, shared with Romans during the founding of the republic, that gave us the constitution and the liberty-loving nature that we have today.

As part of my Hadrian's forum series on Roman History for Kossacks, I would like to start a new sub-series. This series, which I will call "Roman Lives" (title taken from the books by the Roman historian Plutarch), will focus on the lives of important Romans during the years of the Republic. The series will compare them to modern politicians and other leaders.

When I was trying to decide which American politician most resembles a noble, liberal Roman politician, one pair came to mind first and foremost: Senator Robert Byrd, and the greatest of all Roman Orators, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Like Byrd, Cicero was a scholar, a senator and a senate leader (Cicero was a consul, Byrd has been the Majority Leader and the President Pro Tempore). But more importantly, Cicero was one of the last, great defenders of his Republic. Both Byrd and Cicero loved their republic, their senate, and their constitution unlike anyone else of their day. Cicero was a true patriot, who held the ideals of great patriots past. Cicero fought the rise of dictatorship and illiberalism in Rome. Cicero was a strong defender of liberty. And Cicero literally fought against tyranny and for constitutionalism until the very end.

I recently started reading a new book, called Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic . Besides finding it a great book, it got me thinking. The author uses historical examples to compare past empires to the American empire. It got me to the point where I am starting to tie everything I have read over the last six years together to come up with a realization. This country is nearing a tipping point, which may wreck the republic. The greatest threat facing this country is not terrorism or Iraq or simple conservative hubris. Rather, these are all symptoms of the ultimate crisis facing this country. The crisis is the unraveling of our constitution, and irreversible accumulation of near absolute presidential power. The absolution of presidential power is the direct cause (although certainly not the only cause) of the unraveling of the constitution. Most other causes revolve around the tyranny that we call the presidency.

I am going to start a sub-series, in my "Hadrian's Forum" series. This sub-series will be about the unraveling of the constitution in the late Roman Republic, and lessons for, and comparisons to, today. My first topic will be the Gracchi brothers.

An interesting point was made to me today. I was talking with someone about the depravity and dis-reality of the boy emperor. We were talking about how the US Congress has spent the prior 6 years bowing like the Roman Senate to Caesar. But an interesting point is made. In some, small way, we are lucky that the president with imperial and autocratic ambitions is Bush. I am not saying we are lucky that Bush is the emperor. But, we are lucky that Bush is such an intellectual midget. There is a posive side to having a ruler who didn't have the intellect to know that Sunnis and Shia existed before invading Iraq. Why? As horrible as Bush is, we would be in far worst shape if he had the intellect to make his autocratic ambitions reality. Think of what would happen if Cheney was president, and not Bush. Cheney would probably become a dictator.