It is a disturbing pattern of behavior among senior officials in the Bush administration. Top officials leave the administration after becoming alarmed over malfeasant behavior by the president and his minions. But instead of speaking out, they keep quiet — until they write a book or find themselves testifying at a congressional hearing.

Bush’s former secretary of state, attorney general, CIA director and their top aides are among those who left in silence.

The most recent example is the former CIA director George Tenet. In his new book, “At the Center of the Storm,” he says was used as a scapegoat in the misinformation campaign the Bush team created to take the country. Now, four years into the war, and with $4 million in his pocket from the book, he’s coming forward with the truth, As Arianna Huffington put it:

[He is] about four years too late. Tenet seems to believe there’s a major distinction between lying and standing by silently while others lie, and then proudly receiving a Medal of Freedom from the liars.

He could have simply resigned and freed himself to “tell the truth.” Tenet acts as if resignation were not an option. But it was. And the passion and anger he displays now in the service of book sales could have been used then in the service of his country

Last week we learned that John Ashcroft resigned as attorney general three years ago at least in part because he and others at the Dept. of Justice believed that the warrantless eavesdropping program was illegal. The fact that someone — the president refuses to say who — sent two of Bush’s top goons, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Bush’s chief of staff, Andy Card, to Ashcroft’s hospital bed to try to strong-arm him into changing his mind may have also been a factor:

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to [congressional testimony by former DOJ official James] Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, [FBI director Robert] Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said. The domestic spying by the National Security Agency continued for several weeks without Justice approval, he said.

The wiretapping and the hospital visit were too much for Comey:

“I couldn’t stay if the administration was going to engage in conduct that the Department of Justice had said had no legal basis,” he said. “I just simply couldn’t stay.” Comey testified he was going to be joined in a mass resignation by some of the nation’s top law enforcement officers: Ashcroft, Mueller, [Ashcroft's chief of staff David] Ayres and Comey’s own chief of staff.

Ayres persuaded Comey to delay his resignation, Comey testified. “Mr. Ashcroft’s chief of staff asked me something that meant a great deal to him, and that is that I not resign until Mr. Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me,” he said.

The threat became moot after an Oval Office meeting March 12 with Bush, Comey said. After meeting separately with Comey and Mueller, Bush gave his support to making changes in the program, Comey testified. The administration has never disclosed what those changes were.

Mueller is still head of the FBI. Comey resigned a year later in April 2005, but did not go public about the hospital visit until he was asked about under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Ashcroft was one of two cabinet officials to resign within a week after Bush was reelected in November 2004. (The other was Bush’s friend, Don Evans, who served as commerce secretary, and who has not been heard from much in D.C. since.) Ashcroft has never spoken publicly about the wiretap program or the visit from Bush’s top goons to his hospital room. But then it would be odd if Ashcroft spoke out since he is a politcal hack and partisan of the first order.

By contrast, the saddest case of all may be former Sec. of State Colin Powell. The Bushies, with Tenet’s help, sent him out to lie about their reasons for war, both to the country and to the world in an infamous presentation to the UN in February 2003 — perhaps not knowing that Bush had decided long before to start the war one month later.

To add insult to Powell’s fatally injured reputation, after Bush won reelection, he ordered Andy Card to fire the secretary of state. Even so, Powell has kept quiet about his leadership role in taking the country to war. He is supposedly remaining quiet because he is a good soldier, but had he resigned and spoken out when he learned he had been duped, he might have helped end the war, saving the lives of hundreds of U.S. troops and thousands of innocent Iraqis.

All of these men had a chance to make a difference. They could have resigned before the 2004 elections and, whether alone or as a group, could have forced out of office a president whom they knew to be incompetent and corrupt.

But they didn’t speak out, and the reason is clear: They feared they would damage the Republican Party. Ironically, however, to save their party, removing Bush from office may have been the better choice. By keeping silent while he won a second term, they may have enabled him to do irreparable harm to the GOP.

Republicans are quick to slur the patriotism of Democrats who speak out against Bush’s illegal war and who criticize the president. But by any definition, government leaders who stand mute while the president and his men mislead the country and knowingly break the same laws they’ve sworn to uphold are the ones whose patriotism deserves to be questioned.