Attorney General Gonzales:"I accept full responsibility but..."

With this quote, I accept full responsibility for the actions of the Dept. of Justice but there are over 100,000 employees and I don't know all the conversations, memos etc. within the Dept." Attorney General Alberto Gonzales started his news conference with reporters over the firing of 8 U.S. Attorneys.

I learned back when I became a coach that when you use the word "but" in a sentence, it erases everything before the word. For example, "you look great in that dress but..." or "yes I love that gift but..." In this case, although Gonzales says he accepts responsibility, that word "but" was included and therefore he does not accept responsibility. Sounds like his excuse is there are a lot of people here and I can't be held responsible for everything in my Dept. What do you think?