White House insiders: Gonzales hurt himself before panel - CNN.com
Thats right folks. Toast. Crispy black toast. He should just change his name to that, cuz that is what he is. I watched Att. General Gonzalez's testimony today and I'm not sure I have seen a more inept performance in my life. It was a train wreck and all the more incredible to me because this man is the top attorney for the United States of America, the President's lawyer for crying out loud.
You think of lawyers, accomplished lawyers, as people with an excellent command of vocabulary and oratory. You think of them as people who can persuasively deliver a cogent, focused verbal argument. You certainly assume that the nation's top lawyer can do so. And you certainly believe thats what you're going to hear when the U.S. Attorney comes to Congress to tell his side of the story.
I'm sorry folks, but it just didn't happen. Gonzales testimony was a repetitive series of "I don't recall" statements. He referred over and over again in answering questions to his review of documents and his schedule, but you never heard the guy say that he talked to somebody. It became increasingly clear that he was very disengaged from this whole process and that he did not know or could not articulate a straightforward answer to why these attorneys were fired. Senators both Republican and Democrat lit into him with gusto and cleaned his clock repeatedly. On at least one occasion, he became so flustered that he started giving a clearly incorrect answer and in parts of his testimony he was simply incomprehensible.
The White House issued a public statement that the President was pleased with his testimony, but insiders are saying the opposite in private. I think the White House would have been better served to keep their mouth shut and issue no opinion because it makes them look and sound completely stupid to say that was a good performance. Watching Gonzales's hearing performance was only a little better than watching a Roman scourging.
So, I say he is toast. His testimony with its breathtaking lack of clarity leaves any reasonable observer with an impression of an Attorney General so focused on the President's bidding as it relates to the terror war, that he was an absentee manager of the Justice Dept. Toast.
