Stop already. These guys are nihilists . Get it? They don't care if they lie. Lying is their way of life. That and stone-walling. Let the bodies stack up, the lives ruined, whatever. Look, the only way to empty the garbage now, given the breath and depth of this hubris and morass, is to impeach this administration. Clean it out, top to bottom. What will be exposed in this clean-up will absolutely shock this nation into NEVER letting this shit ever happen again. Proceed with the impeachment.

Looks like someone lied to congress. That's a crime, right? Like lying under oath? Or lying about carnal knowledge? Or lying about lying about lying under oath?

you will "have no recollection" is to avoid at all costs reading any reports that are relevant to your job.

Depends. Was his mouth moving?

Break out the counters - at his next appearance Gonzalez will attempt to break his previous record for saying "I Don't Recall" "I Don't Remember" or "I Just Don't Recollect".

Let's start a pool here - I'm gonna take dibs on 132.

so, if he never read the reports, he didn't lie when he said he didn't know of any violations???

I gotta tell my boss that failure to perform one's responsibilities is a legitimate culpability dodge ...

Michael Brown (of Katrina/FEMA fame) looks hard-working and diligent in comparision ....

Fredo, I know it was you.

noses in the Bush Administration grow when they tell the truth.

So our options for the chief law enforcement official in the land is that he was (1) too disinterested to read memos about violations of American civil rights, or (2) he flat-assed lied about the violations to Congress to coop them into re-authorizing a law that was being violated? Not only does Fredo had a memory like a sieve, he's that dumb as well? Where did he go to law school? Will anyone own up to giving him a degree? Can a chool take back a degree? If there are "honorary degrees" for outstanding folks, are there "dishonorable degrees" for the likes of Gonzales?

I feel like Alice through the Looking Glass - things get curiouser and curiouser ...

In Gonzales's defense, Justice Department spokesperson Brian Roehrkasse explained that when he testified, Gonzales was speaking "in the context" of previous department inspector general reports, which had found no violations.

"But Mom, in my defense, I was speaking in the context of the time before I even knew there were cookies in the cookie jar!"

If we could all speak in the context of times when we didn't know something, we could all be as innocent as lambs.

His boss is curious George and Cheney is the Man in the Yellow Hat.

If by know you mean actually had information stored in his brain cells, then Gonzales can claim actual lack of brain cells and lack of information input. At this point the Administration is using the Idiot Defense: sorry, we couldn't have done anything illegal because we're too damn idiotic to do anything at all.

People go to jail for criminal incompetence, don't they? I think "governing while stupid" should be a crime. Please tell me it's a crime. Anyone? Any lawyers?

I think if the Democratic Congress started, in earnest, to push for impeachment of the whole gang, all of it, right now, they would have the country rise up behind them. Americans want regime change. Now. (Shall we go into the streets and wave the American flag? Would that help?)

Your civil rights have not been violated at any time during this adminsitration. You just don't know about the presidential order retroactivily revoking all your civil rights back through 2001, since if you did, then the terrorists would win.

Now please, shut up and go shopping.

Keeeee-rist Almighty, what a choice - is our Attorney General felonious, or merely utterly incompetent.

C'mon guys, this is really a dog-bites-man story. Wake me up when two miracles occur:

1. Fredo actually remembers something

2. He tells the truth about it

I expect to read about hell freezing over before either happens.

Tell Bush to get out his pardon-pen again.

"...there had "not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse"..."

Count on his defense to hinge on that word 'verified.' Sure there were reports of abuse, but they hadn't been verified.

Followed, of course, by a very convoluted and whimsical definition of 'verified.'

"...there had "not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse"..."

there had been many cases. "many" is not "one"

Like, Duh!

I am reminded of a wisecrack about LBJ: How can you tell if he is lying? If his lips move.

Excuse 1: it's not a lie if you ignore all the more recent evidence to the contrary.

Excuse 2: it's not a lie because everyone else in the administration was saying the same thing.

Excuse 3: We're just really incompetent.

I think that's the fig leaf they'll use. A: He didn't read the reports. B: Since he didn't read the reports, none of the violations had been verified.

What a scumbag.

They believe deeply and meaningfully in their own power as well as their God-given right to that power. Things such as the individual rights of puny citizens or the oversight powers of a functionally populist legislative body like Congress are but the buzzing of gnats in their mighty ears.

Gonzales and company will continue to make selective use of the few facts which they can misconstrue to their benefit for as long as they are allowed. And considering that they selectively ignore the facts of Congressional Subpoenas, it would seem they are ready and willing to ignore Congressional impeachment proceedings.

Pray for a coup. It is the only thing that will dislodge this cabal.

Congress has demonstrated time and time again that its function is to serve as ticket-taker and blustery rubberstamp for every whim and fancy concocted by whoever fills their coffers with the most cash.

America's tolerance of the two-party stranglehold on our national character, identity and collective psyche is the real crime here, and it is exactly why Nancy Pelosi - in spite of the naked criminality of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on full public display DAILY - can get away announcing "Impeachment is off the table." A bigger greenlight for criminal activity could not exist.

Both houses of Congress, and both sides of the aisle, are nothing more than elaborate stage props used to provide an illusion of democracy. That such open, systematic disregard for The Constitution and the public good is accepted as just politics by a majority of Americans - led by the clubby careerists comprising the Royal Punditry - is all the proof anyone needs to understand what the term "post-Constitutionalism" really means.

Get used to it. Our broken nation's Party Apparatchiks have other things to think about - like, who gets to be the next Unitary Executive.