Sometimes They Forget

And the winner for most ridiculous Gonzales statement of the day goes to...

"And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.

But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget."

Silly forgetful terrorists! You see these disclosures have damaged national security... because the terrorists are all stupid! They're so stupid that even though the NSA's surveillance capabilities have been mentioned in movies, TV shows, comic books, and newspapers for years, they were unaware of it. And to the extent that they were aware of it, they would always forget it- if we didn't keep reminding them! And despite being this mindblowingly stupid, they are also simultaneously so smart and tactically brilliant, that their cunningness requires us to have to circumvent existing laws just to keep up with them. If you can't understand that, you must be some kind of idiot.

As Sen. Biden quipped in response, let's hope "that they're that stupid and naive because we're much better off if that's the case".

[From the transcript]

PS- George Washington authorized far broader electronic surveillance than President Bush. Didn't you know?