AmSpec Blog strikes me as excessively charitable toward Alberto Gonzales even in the midst of a call for his resignation:
I kept an ear on his testimony most of the day yesterday, and noted that he seemed clueless but honest. Reading further accounts in sources from across the political spectrum this morning leads me to conclude that he is not just clueless, but hopeless. Here’s a guy who can’t even remember a key meeting where key documents were passed around about a two-year review process that would result in the replacement of seven of the most important legal officers in the country. NO recollection of ANY specifics of the meeting! And here’s a man who cannot even remember a conversation with the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES about a specific U.S. Attorney, when the president himself remembers the meeting even though that is only one small realm of the president’s duties while oversight of USAs is a key function of the AG’s job.
Pretty incredible, huh? No, really, incredible. As in, not remotely credible.
1 response so far ↓
1 JDB // Apr 20, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Cluelessness (in an attorney general) is co-substantial with a pretty insidious form of beaurocratic dishonesty, something like false consciousness. If one’s founding professional responsibility is being-informed-and-capable, and one is not, one is dishonest, continuously and avidly across one’s career– this is the sense in which cluelessness may be less pardonable than prevarication.