"The past exonerative"
WASHINGTON, March 13 \ufffd Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales fell back on a classic Washington linguistic construct on Tuesday when he acknowledged that \ufffdmistakes were made\ufffd in the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors last year.
The phrase sounds like a confession of error or even contrition, but in fact, it is not quite either one. The speaker is not accepting personal responsibility or pointing the finger at anyone else.
[...]
The nonconfessions inspired William Schneider, a political guru here, to note a few years ago that Washington had contributed a new tense to the language. \ufffdThis usage,\ufffd he said, \ufffdshould be referred to as the past exonerative.\ufffd
It's worse in Gonzales's case because [link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301515.html|he's trying to have it both ways]:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced the cameras for all of nine minutes yesterday, but he managed to contradict himself at least four times as he fought off calls to resign over the firing of U.S. attorneys.
"Mistakes were made," he said in fluent scandalese, but "I think it was the right decision."
\t
"I am responsible for what happens at the Department of Justice," he posited, but "I . . . was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."
"Kyle Sampson" -- Gonzales's chief of staff -- "has resigned," he said, but "he is still at the department."
And, finally, "I believe in the independence of our U.S. attorneys," Gonzales maintained, but "all political appointees can be removed . . . for any reason."
Gonzales should go.
Cheers,
Scott.