Every so often, one (myself, in this case) comes across something in the media which just leaves you with your jaw hanging open, you eyes bulged in disbelief, and an outraged "WTF??!!" hanging on the tip of your tongue just waiting to be shouted. It's a lot more common a reaction in the untamed wilderness of the blogosphere, but today's offering was discovered (via various blogs) in the august pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Which is, basically, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' exit interview.
It is just astonishing: if a clever blogger was trying to put up a spoof (or, more precisely, a snarky satire) of the clueless, self-unaware Bush Administration hack trying desperately to salvage some sort of reputation from the trainwreck of this discredited regime, they could scarcely do a better than the actual words Mr. Gonzales has left for posterity in this year-end interview. Amazingly, he manages to hit almost ALL the self-exculpatory talking points:
Cluelessness:
"What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?" he said during an interview Tuesday, offering his most extensive comments since leaving government.
Self-pity:
Mr. Gonzales said that "for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror."
Blame-shifting:
He says that while he bears responsibility as former Attorney General that "doesn't absolve other individuals of responsibility."
BTW, he manages also to try to pin the blame on John Yoo for promulgating the infamous WH "torture memos" - as if he, Gonzales, were a mere bystander (of course).
And a final quote of meta-clueless cluelessness:
In one of his final acts before leaving office, Mr. Gonzales denied he was planning to quit, even though he had told the president of his intention to resign. Asked about the misleading comment Tuesday, he said: "At that point, I didn't care."
It may not quite come up to George W. Bush's standards of pre-emptive delusionary "historicity" - Gonzo's old boss, naturally, is absolutely positive that History will vindicate each and every one of his policies ("WTF??!!") - but it's close enough. At least it will provide future students with a pithy summation of the prevailing attitude in one of this country's more famous/infamous Presdiential Administrations:
"At that point, I didn't care"