Alberto Gonzalez’s Big Day
One of those weird unverifiable because we have no connections ourselves and are thus relying on journalists who may or may not be connected to the truth stories has been that Alberto Gonzalez has been practicing and practicing and practicing his testimony for his big day before the Senate Judicial Committee. And that he kept failing and failing and failing in these practice rounds.
After today’s testimony, it is clear this indeed happened. It was not misinformation bounced from the Bush Administration to lower expectations so that when Gonzalez comes across as slick as velvet, he’ll be hailed as having defeated the controversy making the Democrats look stupid. Practicing your testimony sometimes clears a liar up, makes him smoother and slicker and better able to evade what is now a hostile jury with non-answers.  And sometimes it just confirms that there is nothing you can do, your non-answers will show you as a fraud and there is no way to polish them. The latter appears to be what happened.
Years from now we somebody will write the back-stage story of Alberto Gonzalez’s practice rounds, within a volume on the Bush Administration’s troubled final acts. I imagine a horrified group of Bush accolydes staring at each other as Gonzalez stutters toward explanations. Tapping fingers across from Gonzalez, flummoxed for a better approach “Okay, Alberto. Let’s try… um… ‘I do not recall’? See how that one comes across.”
I look forward to reading that one.