(Please: If this has been diaried, could someone inform me so I can delete it? Thanks!) I could have entitled this, "Idontrecallitis" is beginning to spread, like a bacterial infection.
Evidently Dick Cheney told Larry King, that he "Had no recollection" whether or not he was the one - as reports had indicated - who had directed Gonzo to go to Ashcroft in the infamous March 10th showdown in Ashcroft's hospital bedside, and get the AG to sign off on the program (whichever one it was as it is turning out).
With Gonzo and his skipping record "I don't recalls" before the Senate Judicial Committee and Cheney now contracting the same condition, it seems someone needs to find a treatment for it. But the real story is what that really means, "I don't recall" or "I have no recollection".
Okay, the short answer to my headline is this:
"I don't recall" means "I am not going to tell you."
...For you and me, of course, "I don't recall" means one's memory is faulty, and the administration is taking advantage of our antiquated concept of those simple phrases. They know that people will hear it that way, so they have concocted a plan to stonewall, using the Scooter Libby memory defense, even if it is not true (just as it was untrue in Scooter's trial). This administration has made a career out of using common phrases that they redefine without informing anyone else, so that they can later say, "Well, we really meant it that other way."
Now, if Gonzo had been dragged off the street to testify before the Judicial Committee, one could understand his inability to recall, since he'd have had no time to prepare. And the MSM has let them get away with pretending that Gonzo's memory lapses are understandable what with all the important things on his plate all the time. How can this poor imperfect man be supposed to remember what happened months ago? (Scooter defense in action there!)
However, there were these articles in the week prior to his appearance before the committee:USAToday (4-2-07): Gonzales preps for showdown with Senate
and WaPo (4-5-07): Gonzales Prepares to Fight for His Job in Testimony
In these, it is stated that
(USAToday: "The attorney general remains focused and will spend significant time this week preparing to testify before the Congress," Roehrkasse said.
Roehrkasse said Gonzales postponed tentative plans to take a spring break with his wife and three sons, opting instead to prepare for what even Republicans say will be a "make or break" April 17 appearance.
(WaPo: Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has retreated from public view this week in an intensive effort to save his job, spending hours practicing testimony and phoning lawmakers for support in preparation for pivotal appearances in the Senate this month, according to administration officials.
Now, these articles were three DAYS apart, telling us that Gonzo was spending DAYS going over his testimony. With all that, you'd think he would have come pretty darned prepared, wouldn't you?
Well, he was prepared. Here is the way it was put in the WaPo:
Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, and Timothy E. Flanigan, who worked for Gonzales at the White House, have met with the attorney general to plot strategy. The department has scheduled three days of rigorous mock testimony sessions next week and Gonzales has placed phone calls to more than a dozen GOP lawmakers seeking support, officials said.
Three days of "rigorous mock testimpny" - you would have thought that someone in those practice sessions would have asked Gonzo some of the 70-some-odd questions to which he responded with "I don't recall," and that he then would have searched through his records and emails and memos and notes to find the appropriate answers, so that when those questions came up he would have told the committee what it wanted to know. Hell, he could have made a crib sheet, something to help his recall. And, to boot, he has all kinds of people available to go research his written records of what happened.
But somehow, all those days of preparation didn't work out like that. He was able to sit there with that patented 69-IQ smirk and pretend that they were just asking him questions that he hadn't any idea they were going to ask.
Why? Because he was not preparing to answer their questions; he was preparing to tell them, "I am not going to tell you," but without them catching on that that is what he was saying. If he had prepared by boning up, he would have had very few "I don't recall"s.
So, what were they doing? It is right there in the WaPo: "to plot strategy". Now we all would plot strategy before going before a Senate committee, wouldn't we? Sure, so that we didn't look like idiots or so that we could phrase our answers in ways that reflected as well on us as possible. But our preparations would certainly have included refreshing our memories.
This, obviously Gonzo did not do. In saying that, do I accept that he, in fact, could not remember the answers? Not even close.
The strategy they plotted was one of stonewalling, and what is the best way to do that, when any answers given would lead to more questions along certain lines? The "poor memory" Scooter defense. But only as a cover-up. The real strategy was to tell them to go to hell, he wasn't going to tell them anything. Over and over, he gave the committee the finger - in such a way that they didn't even know he was doing it.
Now, if you or I gave that answer, "I don't recall" even once when the committee knew we did know the answer, what would the outcome be? Perjury. Lying to Congress. Jail. But deference is given to Cabinet members; their answers are accepted as true, unless there is incredibly strong reason to suggest otherwise. Gonzo and the strategy planners used that deferential respect to their own ends, to deflect the questions away from the meat of the subject, and Gonzo would have to - it was part of the strategy - be the butt of everyone's jokes during and afterward. He had to take one for the Gipper. Or in this case, the wannabe Gipper.
We all do now know - and the Senate committee does, too - that Gonzo didn't forget all those answers. And pressure is ratcheting up on him and bits are coming out about other programs in the administration's attempts to contain the Gonzo fever. And it is precisely those other programs that Gonzo was tasked with masking, keeping hidden. But too much parsing can back you into a corner where you have to let a little bit of what you are trying to hide, in order to stay alive for the next round.
The cat is now beginning to be let out of the bag.
The "I don't recalls" (read "I am not going to tell you") are turning into Bush's version of the Nixon White House tapes - focusing the public's and Congress' attention right where they DIDN'T want us to look.
(1974) Oh, look! Tricky Dicky has secret tapes!
(2007) Oh, look! Doofus has secret programs beyond the ones he's been forced to admit to!
I am glad Cheney brought up the "I am not going to tell you," approach again. It gave me a chance to revisit this and make a point I think was missed the first time around...
I wonder if, when they are on the scaffolds, they will suddenly remember that they took oaths of office. . .