Gonzales, below, practices the "Bush Smirk" as he pretends "not to remember."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&e=1&u=/washpost/20050107/ts_washpost/a54607_2005jan6But under often tough questioning from Democrats and some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites), Gonzales said he could not recall key details of his involvement in the production of an August 2002 memo that narrowly defined the tactics that constitute torture. He also declined repeated invitations to repudiate a past administration assertion that the president has the authority to ignore anti-torture statutes on national security grounds.
Gonzales testified that while he disagreed with portions of the Justice Department memo, he could not recall whether he conveyed those objections to other government lawyers at the time. He said he did not quarrel with its general findings.
But many Democrats and at least one Republican argued that Gonzales had participated in formulating policy that laid the foundation for the abuse scandals in Afghanistan (news - web sites), Iraq and Cuba, which have generated global outrage. Gonzales declined to answer many questions and said he could not recall details in relation to many others, prompting complaints from some Democrats on the committee.
"We're looking for you, when we ask you questions, to give us an answer, which you haven't done yet," Sen. Joseph R. Biden (news, bio, voting record) Jr. (D-Del.) told Gonzales. "I love you, but you're not very candid so far."