The Daily Background

As I have noted previously, Gonzales has been given one week by Senate Judiciary Committee Pat Leahy to revise his testimony to correct any errors:

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee is advising — for now — against a perjury investigation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over his apparent misstatements about warrantless spying.
[…]
Gonzales told that committee the program was not at issue when then-White House counsel Gonzales made a dramatic visit to Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital room in 2004. Mueller, before the House Judiciary Committee, said it was.

The apparent contradiction only compounded problems for Gonzales, who is losing support among members of both parties even as he retains President Bush’s, over a series of apparent misstatements since Congress began investigating the firings of federal prosecutors seven months ago.

The chances that Gonzales will actually revise his testimony are quite slim. He might add to it in some attempt at clarification (or, more likely obsfucation), but it’s very doubtful that he’ll revise what he’s already said, or take back some of the contradictory statements he’s made. To do so would be an admission that he wasn’t being as forthcoming as he should have been, and would go against everything that his spokespeople have been saying for days now– that he “stands by his testimony.”

He really should revise his testimony, as it seems that he did lie, but he’s not likely to because he’d be embarrassed. In a way, Leahy is giving him a (relatively) easy way out of a possible perjury mess, knowing full-well that he probably won’t take it. But Leahy obviously knows what he’s doing, and I think it’s clear that he’s given Gonzales more than the benefit of the doubt on this.

Leahy, like Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Arlen Specter, is a former prosecutor, and thus knows from first-hand experience what it takes to put a case together. So he’s proceeding ahead with caution, giving Gonzales any opportunity to get out of this, so that if it does come to a situation where this thing goes to court, or impeachment proceedings against Gonzales, then they will have already established some record of his wanton disregard for the truth, and will be able to show that even when given opportunities to correct the record, Gonzales refused, thus amplifying his initial lies.

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