A "forgetting problem"
The man being questioned today by the Senate Judiciary Committee continues to prevaricate and coyly point his toes in, look down and shrug about the reasons and mechanisms behind the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
He’s not just any guy off the street. He’s the top lawmaker in the country. Yet Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s answers to questions posed him by members of the committee sound just like the answers I used to get from my daughter when I questioned her about something she didn’t do after being asked or something she'd done wrong.
“I forgot.”
“I don’t know.”
The following headlines are from TPMMuckraker.com, Talking Point Memo’s sister site. Muckraker is liveblogging the committee hearing with video clips and synopses:
“Gonzales: You Know Better Than I Do”
“Gonzales Changes Story Again on Cummins”
“Gonzales Admits Didn’t Look At
“Gonzales: I Only Work Here”
“Gonzales Can’t Remember Giving Firing Order”
“Gonzales: Criticism Damages DoJ Employees”
I’d like to offer Mr. Gonzales a possible new excuse, dredged from the hair-tearing annals of Wren family memories: “But Mom, you know I’ve always had a forgetting problem!”
She surely did. But her “forgetting problem” was, regrettably, my fault. There has never been anything wrong with my sweet daughter’s brain. In fact, she’s rather brilliant. I let her use the “I forgot” excuse too many times because I wanted to cut her a break or I understood why she’d “forgotten” and didn’t feel like pushing her. Naturally, since the excuse was so successful in getting her out of hot water, she used it again and again. For years.
It was bad parenting on my part. I hope she’ll forgive me. Because, you know? It doesn’t work when you grow up.
1 comment:
Who says Gonzalez has grown up? No wonder he's such pals with the big baby in the Oval Office.
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