Editorial: Defending ignorance

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

T hat old saying about ignorance being bliss must be true in Washington. On Monday, responding to last week's lackluster performance by Attorney General Alberto Gonzale s before the Senate Judiciary Committee, President Bush inexplicably said his confidence in Gonzale s had grown.

How?

To parrot the attorney general, we don't know.

The New York Times quoted one unnamed senior Republican congressional aide who wondered whether the president was watching the same committee hearing. Gonzale s seemed to bask in his ignorance of what was happening in the Justice Department.

For instance, in five hours of testimony about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, Gonzale s told the committee that he couldn't recall something, was unsure or didn't know a whopping 64 times - roughly once every five minutes.

Gonzale s stunningly told the committee that he didn't know why two of the attorneys were fired, yet he tried to assure the committee that there was nothing inappropriate about the firing. How does he know?

How can the president retain confidence in his attorney general's performance as a leader when Gonzale s can't recall what happened right under his nose?

We don't know.

One thing Gonzale s knows very well is that the president, his old friend from Texas, is too loyal to do what he should and send Gonzale s packing. Gonzale s plans to stay and says he believes he can be effective, which is laughable considering the damage done to the Justice Department by his incompetence.

Even Republicans are calling for Gonzale s to leave, yet one unnamed White House ally told the Washington Post last week that the president and attorney general are ignoring reality: "They're the only two people on the planet Earth who don't see it."

We know, we know.