Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Preparation

Alberto Gonzalez couldn't remember much, telling Democratic and Republican Senators who questioned Gonzalez, that he couldn't recall things more than anyone can recall in recent history.

I want to make a couple points about the Attorney General's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Before I do so, I just want to point out that I obviously do not have the vast and varied legal experience of Alberto Gonzalez (otherwise, why would the President appoint him the top legal guy in the country?) and I obviously do not rival the keen legal mind and great intelligence of Alberto Gonzalez (otherwise, why would the President appoint him the top legal guy in the country?).

General Gonazlez (that's what they call him -- Attorney GENERAL -- get it?) was asked to appear before the committee to answer questions about the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys, who are the chief federal law enforcement officials in their respective districts of the country (the U.S. Attorneys go through a Congressional hearing process after the President has hand-picked each and nominated them and after extensive background checks have been done on them). He and the Senate committee decided on the date he would appear, which gave Mr. Gonzalez about six weeks to prepare for the questioning he would undergo by long-winded Senators.

Six weeks. Now, I've been doing this trial law thing for a while; and if there's one thing I know about putting a client on the witness stand, it's that the client should be prepared for the questions that are going to be asked by not only me but by the lawyers on the other side. So, Alberto had six weeks to know the answers to questions he probably knew were going to be served up by Republican Senators because they would have given him the questions ahead of time and six weeks to prepare for the worst questions that his 30,000 employees in the Justice Department could think up so that he could rehearse possible answers to the questions posed by Democratic Senators.

He gave his testimony. Did it take him six weeks to memorize all the different ways to say "I don't remember?"

I could have prepped him in ten minutes.

1) Don't look at any documents that were produced; so, you won't: (a) know the contents, or (b) remember the contents.

2) If asked about documents, your answer should be: (a) I don't know, or (b) I don't remember.

3) Wear a nice suit, but do not dress better than any of the Senators.

4) Add "sir" to each answer.

5) When you can't answer "I don't know" or "I don't remember," say: "The buck stops here;" or "It's totally like my responsibility, and I'm doing a heckuva job." It matters not what the question might be.

Six weeks. If the scene was a chapter in a novel, the critics would say that the reader can't possibly suspend disbelief for something that off-the wall and stupid.

This whole government is a demonstration of the Peter Principle at work.

Posted by Bill at April 21, 2007 11:43 PM