In Defense of Alberto Gonzales, Sort OF

As performance art, Gonzales' testimony in the House and Senate are Oscar-worthy. Nixon's attorney general John N. Mitchell was pugnacious, disdainful, arrogant (like Bork and Thomas during their nomination hearings). But I never saw anything but the blandest, almost sweet expression on the face of Gonzales. He mouthed inanities and inconsistencies with no apparent sense that what he was saying made him look to be a fool.

He makes me think of the underrated Vanna White. It is no small feat to turn letters over, smile, and clap minute after minute, over and over for hours at a time. (It is my understanding that multiple programs are recorded on a single day.)

Like Ms. White, Mr. Gonzales was almost always cheerful in his answers. His lack of concern for either truth or competence, a total lack of concern not disdain, would make him a superb press secretary.