We've broken the "L word" barrier:

Leahy: Bush Aides Lying About E-Mails By LAURIE KELLMAN

Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's aides are lying about White House e-mails sent on a Republican account that might have been lost, a powerful Senate chairman said Thursday, vowing to subpoena those documents if the administration fails to cough them up. "They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy shouted from the Senate floor. "You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."

Leahy also drew one key parallel to Watergate:

"Like the famous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes, it appears likely that key documentation has been erased or misplaced. This sounds like the Administration's version of 'the dog ate my homework.'"

Media note: Suggested scandal nickname, DogAte.

So yes, we now have our 18-minute gap. But keep in mind that the statutory remedy available to Congress here is contempt charges, and that the unfortunate reality about contempt of Congress is... it gets prosecuted at the discretion of the U.S. Attorney's office.

Would the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia -- appointed by Gonzales under the infamous and now-repealed provision of the PATRIOT Act -- refuse to prosecute the White House and the Department of Justice for failing to produce the subpoenaed e-mails, or for destroying them? Well, it's happened before. Back in the 80s, the Reagan DoJ refused to prosecute EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch Burford for her contempt of Congress charges, and even filed suit against the House of Representatives to block the enforcement of their subpoenas.

So what we have here is not just an 18-minute gap, but a case where Archibald Cox has already been fired. We've already had our Saturday Night Massacre.

The question is, what is Congress prepared to do about it? Will they utilize the other methods and remedies available to them? Or will they throw their hands up and hope the courts will do their work for them?

And if they decide to rely on the courts -- a dicey proposition, at best -- will that just effectively run out the clock, as the "administration" is doubtless hoping to do? Even if Congress should manage to prevail in court, will we find out too late in the game, only to be told that yes, they were right all along, but the 2008 election season fast approaching, it's time to "focus our energy"... again?

The last time around, the word was that the most important thing about winning back the majority in Congress was subpoena power.

Well, either Congress has that power or it doesn't. Right now, for all the outrage the Bush White House is producing, Congress still doesn't have the e-mails.

Before we're asked again to "focus our energy" on the elections, let's hear a little bit from Congress about how they'll be focusing their energy right now.

To wait for the judicial branch to do the legislative branch's work is only to ensure the eventual Iran-Contrafication of the current spate of scandals.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald notices a pattern.