Journalistic prerogative

Well lookee here! It turns out Alberto Gonzales might be some sort of liar.

The accusation that Gonzales has been deceptive in his public remarks has erupted this summer into a full-blown political crisis for the Bush administration, as the beleaguered attorney general struggles repeatedly to explain to Congress the removal of a batch of U.S. attorneys, the wiretapping program and other actions.

In each case, Gonzales has appeared to lawmakers to be shielding uncomfortable facts about the Bush administration's conduct on sensitive matters. A series of misstatements and omissions has come to define his tenure at the helm of the Justice Department and is the central reason that lawmakers in both parties have been trying for months to push him out of his job.

Interestingly, this article was co-written by Dan Eggen. Also interestingly, Eggen's name came up in last week's Gonzales testimony when the attorney general suggested he didn't intentionally lie about intelligence activities at a press conference back in June. Apparently, out of a highly moral concern for the truth, Gonzales "corrected the record" two days after the press conference by having somebody on his staff call Eggen to let him know that the intelligence activities Comey called into question had not, in fact, been "confirmed to the American people sometime ago."

In today's article, Eggen spends some time suggesting that many, many people think Gonzales has a big honesty problem. I understand why this won't happen anytime soon, but I'd sort of like to hear Eggen's own assessment. It looks very much as if, one way or another, Gonzales lied to him too.