Saturday, March 24, 2007

Gonzales Lied, People Died (at Least Politically...)   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A good cautionary e-mail from a Beltwayer with impeccable judgment:

 I don't want to pick a fight with Jonah...
 
.and I know we don't have all the facts. But based on what has been reported, it seems to me that this morning's headlines could just have easily been "New documents verify Gonzales' claims." For example:

 

Reporting shows that the final plan was sent to the WH for review 12 days before the meeting where it was presented to Gonzales, the meeting that everyone claims is a smoking gun. In other words, the plan was not in development at the time of the Nov. 27 meeting, it was complete and tied up with a bow nearly two weeks earlier.

 

This meeting, according to printed reports, was about a rollout of a plan that had already been completed, and an opportunity for the AG to review and sign off on something that had already been developed.

 

According to the AP, "There are no other meetings on the calendar pages released between that Nov. 27 and Dec. 7, when the attorneys were fired, to indicate Gonzales participated in other discussions on the matter, Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said."

 

In other words, all available reporting actually backs up the AG's claim that he delegated this effort to senior DOJ officials, that those officials created a proposal and plan, and only when they were done did they bring it to the AG for approval. That is completely consistent with what the AG said on March 13 in his press avail.

 

So while I agree that this has not been handled well from the start, I don't agree that hanging the AG based on a Post article that is misreporting the facts is ever a good idea. 

03/24 11:25 AMShare