"THE ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE IS NOT EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE" REDUX

Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) wins confirmation as DCIA despite failing the test:

During a discussion of how to improve operations at the agency that President Bush has nominated him to direct, Goss grumbled, "The absence of proof of adequate intelligence oversight should not be considered proof of the absence of forthcoming intelligence reforms." [emphasis mine]

The problem with that statement, of course, is that Goss was the guy responsible for intelligence oversight when he served in the House.

As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for the past eight years, he was the member of Congress who was supposed to be in charge of monitoring the agency - and of prodding it to address the increasingly obvious flaws in its operations.

It is not unreasonable to suggest that Goss failed in his intelligence oversight duties as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Yet, instead of trying to explain that failure, he simply told the Senate Intelligence Committee that its members should not see his failure to organize adequate intelligence oversight as evidence that he would fail to develop adequate intelligence reforms.

Shades of Don Rumsfeld's "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"?

Talk about doublespeak. And these guys keep getting away with it.