Questioning the Answer
So, two days ago. The Senate Judiciary Committee called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in to answer more questions about things like
- firing federal prosecutors, for hard-to-explain reasons;
- just what was happening when then-White House Counsel Gonzalez and former Chief of Staff Andrew Card tried to get a bed-ridden and sedated Attorney General Ashcroft to sign off on the domestic surveillance program; and,
- why he is still attorney general.
A sample exchange:
Senator Chuck Schumer: Did the president ask you to go to Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital bed?
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: We were there on behalf of the president of the United States.
Schumer: I didn’t ask you that. Did the president ask you to go?
Gonzales: Senator, we were there on behalf of the president of the United States.
Schumer: Why can’t you answer that question?
Gonzales: That’s the answer that I can give you, senator.
If you asked me, When were you born?, could I get away with saying, On a day
in a year?
Technically, that is true. And, technically, it is an answer. But, really.
Could I get away with saying that under oath? How about under oath while on a witness stand or testifying in front of Congress?
