The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth

As the Washington Post story about Sen. Feingold challenging Attorney General Gonzales on comments made during his confirmation hearings makes the rounds, the questing being asked is... Did Gonzales perjure himself? The answer seems to be 'yes'. Mr. Gonzales said during the hearings, under oath, that "it is not the policy or the agenda of this president to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal statutes". Of course, Gonzales was very involved in the authorization of the President's wiretapping program which violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (among other things). ThinkProgress explores the misleading statements that have been made.

Via AmericaBlog, here is the AP image of Gonzales being sworn in:



Andrew Sullivan weighs in:

It seems to me clear that the attorney-general lied under oath to the Senate. In his confirmation hearings, he described warrantless wire-tapping of Americans as a "hypothetical situation," when he was fully aware that such wire-tapping was already in place. We impeached a president for perjury about a civil sexual harassment suit. And Gonzales gets to perjure himself in front of the Senate on a basic matter of national security ... and the world yawns?

What he said.

So Congress- We now know the Executive branch's top legal authority is a liar. What are you going to do about this? Many Americans need to know if we are still a country that believes in the rule of law and that there are consequences for those who betray the public's trust. Is anyone on the Capitol keeping score of all of this?