Attorney General Idunno Fibs Again

I'm on deadline today and won't have much of a chance to participate in any bloggy goodness. But I did see that Alberto Gonzales is trying to set a record for how many times you can lie to Congress and get away with it. He was boxed in by his multiple statements about the domestic spying program, saying first that there was no disagreement within the Justice Department about the program, and then when confronted by James Comey's claim that several members of the Department were ready to resign over it, claimed that Comey was talking about a different program than the warrantless wiretapping which has been revealed to the American people by the President. This contradicted an earlier statement from June, and the Attorney General repeated that contradiction today. My favorite part is how he tried to explain it:

Gonzales said that he misspoke when he said at a press conference in June that he and former deputy attorney general James Comey were referring to the same warrantless wiretapping program.

“I clarified my statement two days later with the reporter,” Gonzales told Schumer. “What did you say to the reporter?” Schumer asked. “I did not speak directly to the reporter,” replied Gonzales.

“Ok,” Schumer continued, “what did your spokesperson say to the reporter?” “I don’t know,” Gonzales said. Schumer then summed up the exchange:

In all due respect, you’re just saying, well, it was clarified with the reporter and you don’t even know what he said. You don’t even know what the clarification is. Sir, how you can say that you should stay on as Attorney General when we go through exercises like this where you’re bobbing and weaving and ducking to avoid admitting that you deceived the Committee?

Hey, bobbing and ducking and weaving has worked thus far, why not go with what you're best at?

(By the way, how much you want to bet that Dan Eggen has NEVER been contacted by the Attorney General's office about retracting the statement?)

Well, the Senate is going to open a perjury investigation, and my hope is that they will see it through AFTER Bush leaves office, charge this clown, and put him in jail. That's the message that has to be sent to Republicans who act as if they are above the law.

There are so many other crazy things Gonzales said today, I could fill a book. TPM Muckraker did, so I would be duplicative. This is embarrassing to the very notion of justice in this country.