Served with papers, then a flashlight

Via TBogg, domestic terrorism, Bush administration-style.

In a taped interview at the hospital as she was surrounded by bloodied bed sheets and hunks of pulled-out hair, Farren's wife told police she escaped the house after hitting the panic alarm and then driving to a nearby home on Weed Street with her two daughters, a 4-month-old and a 7-year-old, after Farren tried to pull her into a bathroom with a kitchen knife, a police report said.

She said the dispute began when Farren wanted to talk to her about divorce papers she delivered to him on Monday. He wanted them to get back together, but she told police that she could not stay with him because of his explosive temper, the report said.

In the third-floor master bedroom, Farren walked toward her, but she told him not to approach and he flew into a rage, she told police.

He tackled her and began pulling out "gobs of hair," she said in the report. He then began beating her with a metal flashlight and drove her to the floor under the blows, she told police.

Bleeding heavily, she passed out and, when she came to, he began strangling her. With his hands around her neck, she lost her sight and began searching for the panic alarm with her hands, she told police.

Farren said, "don't hit the alarm button," but eventually she pushed it and the alarm began to sound, the police report said.

Hearing the alarm, "he went nuts," and began to hit her again with the flashlight, the report said.

Farren then told her he was going to slit his wrists and went and got a large knife, the report said. He went into the bathroom and tried to get her there too. Thinking that he was going to try to kill her, she ran to her daughter's bedroom and screamed, "daddy's trying to kill me," and "we have to leave now," the report said.

[...]

Farren worked as a deputy counsel for George W. Bush from 2007 until he left office; in this role, he took on a number of issues, including dismissal of several U.S. attorneys and the disappearance of White House e-mail communications.

Prior to joining the Bush legal team, Farren served as a vice president in charge of government relations for Xerox.

Farren worked in the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Ronald Reagan and became under secretary for international trade for President George H.W. Bush in 1989. In 1992, Farren left the Commerce Department to become a deputy manager for the unsuccessful Bush-Quayle re-election campaign.

Farren served as deputy director for George H.W. Bush's transition team and prior to joining the Commerce Department in 1983, he served for two years as deputy director of White House liaison at the Republican National Committee.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but it reminds me of the Bush administration's legal underpinnings of civil liberties and foreign affairs. Would it be irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.