<p>I’ve been listening Alberto’s testimony. The oddest thing about it to me is his constant repetition of the phrase “I don’t recall,” in very strange ways. Question: “Did you discuss [fill in the blank] with the President?” Answer: “I don’t remember discussing [fill in the blank] with the President.” It’s like someone has advised him that this circumlocution will make it harder for anyone to charge him with perjury. Whatever his reasons are for phrasing everything this way, it makes him sound like he’s suffering the after-effects of a serious brain injury.</p>
<p>Imagine if our teens came to us with that excuse…would we be willing to accept the I don’t remember bit?</p>
<p>And he is not very prepared…and he jsut said, i don’t recall to the last 4 questions</p>
<p>Whether it’s lack of preparation or lack of ability, but he seems to be incapable of producing a coherent answer about anything. </p>
<p>Is this the best we can do for the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, the head of a department with over 100,000 employees?</p>
<p>And he just admitted he is basically clueless about several investigations that should be going on, and too bad its not on Cspan</p>
<p>thank god for NPR</p>
<p>“Is this the best we can do for the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, the head of a department with over 100,000 employees?”</p>
<p>We know the ding-dong he reports to. Given that, he’s not half bad…</p>
<p>It sounds like he was prepped for this hearing by Sergeant Schultz: “I know nothing!”</p>
<p>The reason that Alberto “Abu Grave” Gonzales is playing mickey the dunce is that if he told the truth, he would be fingering Bush, Rove, and Meiers. He is being paid to take the fall. He’s a loyal Bushie. Doing, a great job, Fredo.</p>
<p>Think about it. Not one senior person in the Justice Department (Att. General, Deputy Att. General, Ass. Attorney Gen. and their Chiefs of Staff) claim to have any idea why, when, and who put the names of the US Attorneys on the list to be fired.</p>
<p>Abu Gonzales is toast. Even Republicans today called for his resignation.</p>
<p>“he is not very prepared”</p>
<p>What surprises me about this is that it is 100% kosher, legally, to refresh your recollection with records while you’re testifying. You’re also allowed to study your datebook and so forth to get your story straight before you come in. Furthermore, an executive like an attorney general can’t function without a secretary who organizes his schedule, places his calls, etc., often a terrific one with a mind like a steel trap, and it’s not against the rules to talk to her about your memory of what happened and see if she rings any bells. You do NOT have to rely purely on free recall in a vacuum.</p>
<p>All in all, it’s pretty strange that with access to all those memory resources, he doesn’t come in saying “I did X on date Y with persons A and B.” Makes you wonder whether X was something unsavory.</p>
<p>I loved it when he said, " I didn’t say that I was always prepared. I said I prepared for every hearing." I have to admit I didn’t listen for very long though. I got tired of hearing “I don’t recall.”</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks Gonzales sounds like a bad caricature of Mr. Rogers?</p>
<p>He can’t tell the truth, so instead of lying, guess the new thing to say is I don’t recall, I will try that if ever called into court, I don’t recall</p>
<p>If it works for him, then should for everybody</p>
<p>" I will try that if ever called into court, I don’t recall. If it works for him, then should for everybody"</p>
<p>Well, it does work for everybody, in the sense that everybody has a right not to testify at all if telling the whole truth might incriminate them. They can take the 5th, like Gonzales’ third-in-command did. The trouble is, even though a jury isn’t allowed to interpret a refusal to testify as an admission of guilt, the general public IS allowed to draw that conclusion, and that’s usually exactly what it does. So if your goal is to save your reputation and credibility among the general public, you can’t refuse to testify…although it remains to be seen whether he’s done himself any favors by choosing to “testify” without answering any questions.</p>
<p>Could also be that something addled his brain, and that he really couldn’t recall what he had for breakfast. I think we should treat him with some compassionate understanding; he is only as capable as the man to whom he directly reports.</p>
<p>Abu was well prepared. He’s been grilling in mock testimony for the past two weeks. Don’ let his mickey the dunce routine fool you.</p>
<p>It’s simple. Bush and/or Rove told him to fire these US Attorneys, either to stop political prosecutions of Republicans or for failing to press political prosecutions of Democrats. It’s as simple as that. Good, old-fashioned hack obstruction of justice.</p>
<p>So Abu and the rest of his two-bit crony Pat Robertson University Law School hacks just say “I don’t recall”. It never occurred to any of them that the Democrats would actually win control of these Committees and hold hearings. They’ve been free to go about their sordid hack business for six years by their Republican co-conspirators in Congress. What? Deke Cunningham was going to hold oversight hearings?</p>
<p>I loved it when he tried to lecture a Senator that challenging his leadership was an attack on all the hardworking career professionals at the Dept. of Justice.</p>
<p>Rove must have taught him that one. After all, Bushie has trotted it out often enough about how questioning his incompentent policy in Iraq is an attack on our soldiers.</p>
<p>I just listened to Senators Leahy and Spector on the Newshour. Leahy said he thought that Alberto’s refusal to give any information about who had decided to fire whom, and why, led him to believe that the firings had taken place for political purposes. Spector responded that there was another explanation: complete incompetence. </p>
<p>I’m not sure which explanation I find more unsettling.</p>
<p>The moderator interjected at that point that President Bush has stated that he was very pleased with Alberto’s performance.</p>
<p>If this were an isolated situation, I’d be more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to incompetence. But, it is not an isolated event.</p>
<p>This is the same Gonzales who authored the White House authorization for using torture and then lied thru his teeth to Congress with the same Mickey the Dunce routine.</p>
<p>This is the same Gonazles who authorized illegal warrantless wiretapping and interception of communications and then lied through his teeth to Congress with the same Mickey the Dunce routine.</p>
<p>It was just amazing how effortlessly Abu tried to hang it all on his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, today.</p>
<p>I must admit I hope he stays, a living symbol of the Administration’s incompetence, greed, and mendaciousness, rather than someone who might actually be effective in forwarding a political agenda so out of step with core American values.</p>
<p>He can join the liars’ rubbish heap along with the two Secretaries of State and Lewis Libby.</p>
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<p>Of course, Bush loves him. Abu is the sychophant pooper scooper who has cleaned up Bushie messes for a couple of decades, including covering up Bush’s DUI arrest. Bush put this character on the Texas Supreme Court and would have put him on th US Supreme Court if he could get away with it.</p>
<p>He won’t fire him. Then, what’s he going to do? The only nominee he could get confirmed would be someone with an ounce of integrity. Do you think Bush, Rove, and Cheney are in position to have that in the Justice Department? Heck no. They’ll run out the clock with Abu as Attorney General. What do they care? It’s not like their polls would go down. Staying out of jail is the name of the game.</p>