Listening with half an ear to NPR, I heard a reporter say "it hardly goes without saying that ..." He meant either "it hardly needs to be said" or "it goes without saying", but what came out was a blend of the two.
He's not the first to do this. Internet search turns up several dozen examples like these:
It hardly goes without saying that countries who have adopted this mode of thinking generally are some of the most disadvantaged in the world.
It hardly goes without saying implementing agencies must be signed up to the plan.
It hardly goes without saying that the resources used in producing this latest outrage could have been spent on much better things.
It hardly goes without saying that you do not have to be an hereditary Peer to have these skills.
It hardly goes without saying what the main topic of conversation has been over the past week, as people have learned of the tragic death of Princess Diana.
Here's another piece of evidence that verbal habit trumps logic when multiple negations are in the picture. At least in this case, the valid phrases are much commoner than the logically incoherent ones.
Posted by Mark Liberman at February 25, 2004 12:50 PM