Hypothetical

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales seems to have fibbed to Congress. Back when Congress was considering Gonzales for the AG job a year ago the issue was torture and Presidential power. Gonzales was walking back a White House memos that claimed the President had the power to aurthorize torture. Rus Feingold (D-Bill of Rights, WI) asked if the President had the power to bypass the law and aurthorize wiretaps. Gonzales used the classic dodge that he "would not answer a hypothetical question" Politico's use this dodge all the time. Really it means "That question sound tricky and I don't want to get tied up in it." The problem for Gonzales is that the question wasn't hypothetical. The illegal wiretap program was going on for several years at this point and Gonzales himself was key in formulating the justification for the program. Hypothetically that mean the Attorney General lied to Congress. And by hypothetically, I mean actually.