This is an extraordinary story which gives some real insight into the Bush White House – while the Attorney General lies in hospital gravely ill and hallucinating, Bush’s political heavies show up to try to force him to sign off on a piece of legislation that would grant extraordinary powers to intelligence agencies to spy on US citizens:

Attorney General John Ashcroft is really sick. About to give a press conference in Virginia, he is stricken with pain so severe he has to lie down on the floor. Taken to the hospital for an emergency gallbladder operation, he hallucinates under medication as he lies, near death, in intensive care. On the night after his operation, he has two visitors: White House chief of staff Andrew Card and presidential counsel Alberto Gonzales. As described in public testimony, they want Ashcroft to sign a document authorizing the government’s top-secret eavesdropping program to go on. The attorney general, who thinks the program is illegal, refuses.

Ashcroft of course famously covered up the naked statues of Justice when he was Attorney General – although in this instance it seems he had the courage to stand up for the rule of law, despite his illness.