Okay, this is going to have spoilers for the third star wars film. So, unless you want to know how Mace Windu meets the source of all Force, don't read below the fold.
That said, there's an interesting plot point in the third film that illustrates EXACTLY how BushCo can continue to be so incompetent and sloppy and STILL put a major buzzkill on the Constitution.
All right, then.
At the beginning of the third film, the Clone Wars are coming to a close. The Jedi led clonetroopers are kicking the Separatist Confederacy's rear end, although the number of Jedi is getting fairly thin.
The Republic attempts to assassinate Count Dooku, the leader of the insurgency, but he escapes for the 8100st time. Of course, this is actually because the Chancellor of the Republic is in cahoots with Count Dooku the entire time.
The attempt inflames the member states of the Confederacy, especially since Dooku had recently sued for peace (never mind that there was a double-cross and the Republic troops got blown to bits). They agree to a plan by military strategist General Grievous to kidnap the Chancellor in retaliation.
Of course, this is also a sham, which Dooku and Palpatine are in on.
The Jedi come to the rescue, and Dooku is killed. I'm not going to spoil everything.
This empowers the Chancellor to institute further liberty-restricting measures, and to prepare for a final assault on the remaining bands of Separatists. All Jedi are dispatched to various planets in this effort, with hordes of clonetroopers.
However, due to some apparent sloppiness on the part of the Chancellor in covering up his tracks, the Jedi Council FINALLY figures out that the Chancellor is a Sith who cooked up this whole crock of a Clone War to seize ultimate power.
The sloppiness is intentional.
Mace Windu and a few Jedi head back to the capital planet to confront the Chancellor. He "defends" himself violently, and then publicly claims that the Jedi have turned against the Republic. Clonetroopers are ordered to disregard commands from the Jedi, and to bring them back to the Chancellor dead or alive.
All W need do is survive ONE apparent assassination attempt, and then, he can more easily claim that anyone challenging his actions is a traitor.
Allies. The UN. Some guy on the street corner with a placard. Anyone.
Commanders who obey these orders will be retained. Commanders who do not will be reunited with the Force.
And they can have naked pictures of Jim Guckert using the Plame memos as TP posted to Google.com, and it won't make a difference. By that point, it's no longer the 18 missing minutes of tape. It's bait.