Steven, I share your frustration with these tribunals. However, I would disagree that this is an example of “ongoing incompetence.”

This is part of a deliberate and longstanding Bush Administration policy to ignore the rule of law. That is the policy.

From the early memos of Gonzalez unilaterally allowing the White House to opt out of the Geneva Conventions to the recent AG scandal–which, as you know, was premised on ignoring precedent and the Senate’s traditional oversight function–time and again there is a pattern on the part of the adminstration to WILLFULY DISCOUNT THE RULE OF LAW.

Given these consistent patterns of behavior, the idea of incompetence doesn’t fly–its the administration’s policy, pure and simple.