contrapositive

THE REAL GONZALEZ An exchange on Sunday's Face The Nation between anchor Bob Schieffer and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez received a lot of attention today in the press.

In the interview, Gonzalez admitted that he gave White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card a twelve-hour headstart before officially informing members of the White House staff that they were obligated to preserve materials relating to the Valerie Plame case.

Burrelle's Information Services pares down the exchange a bit transcribing it this way:

SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you the obvious question, Mr. Attorney General. Did you tell anybody at the White House, "Get ready for this, here it comes"?

Mr. GONZALES: I told one person in the White House that--of the notification and...

SCHIEFFER: Who?

Mr. GONZALES: ...then immediately--I told the chief of staff. And then immediately the next morning, I told the president. And shortly thereafter, there was a notification sent out to all the members of the White House staff.

But their text fails to convey the, um, totality of Gonzalez's response.

For the record, the exchange (you can watch the video here) actually went something like this:

SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you the obvious question, Mr. Attorney General. Did you tell anybody at the White House, uh, "Get ready for this, here it comes"?

Mr. GONZALES: I I I told one person, uh, in in the White House that that--of of the notification and and...

SCHIEFFER: Who?

Mr. GONZALES: uh, then imm...immediately, uh--I, I told the chief of staff. And then immediately the next morning, uh, told the president. And shortly thereafter, there was a notification sent out to, uh, all the members of the White House staff.

Just wanted to clear that up.