On my first reading, it sounds like Sen. Feingold has legitimate reason to complain. I’m basically supportive of the NSA program, but people have to tell the truth under oath. I’d like to see the full transcript (I’ll look it up tomorrow), but at minimum Gonzales sounds awfully squirrely.

Update: A reader writes:

That was an open hearing. He certainly could not go into it during that hearing because it was highly classified. Besides, the proper people in congress were notified of the program prior to this.

Me: I thought about that and it just seems to me that you can come up with answers or responses that take that it into account. You can say “I’d like to answer your question more fully in closed session” or you could approach Feingold afterwards or you could simply throw up boilerplate. But this is the problem with secret programs like this and at minimum the White House could have come up with an answer in advance that didn’t give the appearance of deceiving Congress.