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GOP Leans on Gonzales
By Susan Crabtree and Klaus Marre
The Hill
April 20, 2007
One of the most conservative members of the Senate told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday that he should resign.
During Gonzales’s dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said the firing of U.S. attorneys damaged public confidence in the Justice Department and in the attorneys’ ability to lead independent investigations.
Coburn argued that there should be consequences for the mistakes Gonzales admits making, and that he should be judged by the same standards Justice used to fire the U.S. attorneys.
“It’s generous to say that there were misstatements,” the senator added. “And I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that others have suffered and I believe to put this behind us, requires your resignation.”
Coburn noted, however, that he thought the charge that politics had played a role in some of firings was not yet proven.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), ranking member of the panel, stopped short of calling for Gonzales’s resignation in remarks made a half an hour before the hearing ended, saying he would leave that decision to Gonzales and President Bush.
Specter said that while Gonzales’s credibility has been significantly impaired and outstanding questions remain about whether politics played a role in some of the dismissals, the Attorney General did a “good job” answering senators’ questions and was assertive but not combative.
The White Houses reaffirmed its strong support for Gonzales. Before the testimony was over, President Bush’s spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said the attorney general’s job is secure no matter what the hearings brings, a sentiment echoed in a post-hearing statement in which she said the President has “full confidence” in Gonzales.
“President Bush was pleased with the Attorney General’s testimony today,” the statement said. “After hours of testimony in which he answered all of the senators’ questions and provided thousands of pages of documents, he again showed that nothing improper occurred. He admitted the matter could have been handled much better, and he apologized for the disruption to the lives of the U.S. attorneys involved, as well as for the lack of clarity in his initial responses.”
During a testy exchange early in the testimony, Specter said Gonzales would not win a debate with him about Gonzales’s level of preparation before previous congressional hearings and press conferences when he said he had not been involved in discussions and had not seen memos about the firings.
Other Republicans on the panel were extremely critical of Gonzales and aggressive in their questioning — even staunch supporters of the administration.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who was a U.S. attorney for 12 years, criticized the attorney general saying, “It does appear that your statements given at the Department of Justice at a press conference incorrectly minimized your involvement in this matter. Your ability to lead the Department of Justice is in question. I wish that were not so, but I think it certainly is.”
In questioning Gonzales later, Sessions said it was “troubling” to him that the attorney general could not recall a Nov. 27, 2006 meeting of senior DOJ officials convened to approve the list of attorneys to be dismissed.
In his opening remarks, Gonzales apologized for making inconsistent statements and for failing to be “precise” in discussing the matter, and said he took full responsibility for the confusion.
“My misstatements were my mistakes — no one else’s; and I accept complete and full responsibility here as well.”
But throughout the hearing, Gonzales stood by his decision to fire the U.S. attorneys and denied that they were dismissed to interfere with any investigation or for “partisan gain.” He repeatedly stated that “nothing improper occurred,” but said to make sure, he has asked the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility to look into this matter and has recused himself from the investigation.
Gonzales endured more than five hours of grilling by the senators about his and others’ mishandling of the matter and how he plans to re-establish credibility with the public and Congress. Costumed hecklers occasionally interrupted him and called him a liar. They hissed at his answers and held up signs with the words “Resign Gonzales” and displaying the number of times he had said “I don’t recall” during his responses.
Gonzales said he wished the firing process had been more “structured” and “rigorous.” He promised better communications with prosecutors including yearly meetings with each of them that would include either himself or a senior Justice official.
Following the first half of Gonzales’s testimony, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been leading the Democratic probe of the firings, said Gonzales must leave his post.
“I think that anyone who watched this morning’s hearings can only come to one conclusion, and that is Alberto Gonzales should no longer be attorney general,” Schumer said.
Schumer accused Gonzales of “hardly [knowing] what was going on in the department on one of the most important issues the department has faced,” adding, “The great irony is that the U.S. attorneys he fired end up being far more qualified for their jobs than he does for his, at least as today’s testimony shows.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) came to Gonzales’s defense twice during the hearing.
“I think that we can all agree that you delegated this matter to others that you had confidence to handle it,” Hatch said. “You’ve accepted responsibility …with 100,000 plus employees it’s understandable to see why sometimes some things slip by.
“You’ve taken a lot of lumps here — but you’ve also handled yourself well here.”
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