"I do not recall."

Sophocles, showing a little tit.  You tiger!

Whoever came up with that line of defense is a stone-cold genius.  Unfortunately for that person they are obv not getting the credit they deserve, or the royalties.  I imagine "I do not recall" prob dates back to the birth of western civilization, the Greeks, who at least if they did not invent it, prob made it v popular and laid the painstaking and crucial groundwork for all the rest of us in the western world.

When the Tillman family finally got Rumsfeld and all the frickin' generals to testify before Congress re the death of their oldest son, the phrase, "I do not recall," was used eighty-two fucking times.  And when Waxman tried to close the hearing, stating, just in passing, the dates that Rumsfeld and his crew had each acknowledged they had seen the "smoking gun" memo, they each one of them (Rumsfeld, the first, showing the generals the way, old pro that he is) got on the record w/ one last, "I do not recall" to cover their asses.

It would be hilarious to watch if it were not real.  To paraphrase the event, if Rummy & his gang were not top brass military folk but instead college kids caught with their hand in the cookie jar, the quote from the generals would be, after Rummy covered his ass, "Hey, I wanta get in on that!" And if those generals were not military brass or college kids but instead eight year olds, the applicable quote would be:  "Yeah, me too."

I know.  Fucking pathetic, hunh?

Speaking of the ancient Greeks, The Tillman Story movie, a fantastic documentary, seems to have been written by Sophocles.  It is a true Greek tragedy, not horribly unlike Antigone.  Pat Tillman was a great human being and to see his life be co-opted and abused to justify a fucking unjust war is so repulsive and flat-out wrong it makes one ill.

"I do not recall."  Works a treat every time.