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Gonzales Hit from Both Sides
Attorney General gets Bipartisan Lashing during Senate Testimony
By Andrew Zajac
Chicago Tribune
April 20, 2007
Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales lost ground Thursday in his battle to boost political support to keep his job as Republicans on a Senate panel harshly criticized his handling of the firings of eight federal prosecutors last year, and an additional GOP lawmaker called on him to quit.
Gonzales acknowledged that he botched the firings by failing to give prosecutors targeted for dismissals a chance to defend themselves and failing to explain to them why they were being replaced.
He insisted, however, that he could still effectively run the Department of Justice.
"I have admitted mistakes in managing this issue, but the department as a general matter has not been mismanaged," Gonzales said. "The moment I believe I can no longer be effective, I will resign as attorney general."
Gonzales has been under fire from Democrats for months, but on Thursday several of the Judiciary Committee's once-reliably supportive Republicans turned on him too, with volleys of unfriendly questions and negative assessments of his ability to continue to lead the department.
Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, one of the Senate's most conservative members, said Gonzales should be measured by the same standards of management he applied to the fired prosecutors, and on that basis, should quit.
Coburn said the dismissals were "handled incompetently ... and I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered. And I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation."
Coburn is the third Senate Republican to call for Gonzales' ouster, along with Sens. John Sununu of New Hampshire and Gordon Smith of Oregon.
Among the committee's nine Republicans, only Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah came to Gonzales' defense, chiding colleagues to balance the good Gonzales has done against his missteps in the firings.
"I mean, how many times do you have to be flagellated over that?" Hatch asked.
But Hatch's fellow Republicans kept Gonzales at the whipping post.
\ 'Be alert and honest'
Even staunch White House backers like Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions were hard-pressed to offer encouragement.
"Be alert and honest and direct with this committee, give it your best shot," urged Sessions, who also acknowledged that "your ability to lead the Department of Justice is in question."
Sessions said he was bothered by Gonzales' inability to remember attending a Nov. 27 meeting at which the firings were discussed. "It's not that long ago," Sessions said.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham scoffed at Gonzales' assertion that he had provided documentation that the firings were justified.
"Mr. Attorney General, most of this is a stretch," Graham said. "I think it's clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or at the White House and, you know, we made up reasons to fire them. Some of it sounds good, some of it doesn't, and that's the lesson to be learned here."
Influential Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter questioned Gonzales' credibility in asserting last month that he wasn't involved in deliberations about the firings. Specter reacted sharply after Gonzales told him he always prepared for congressional testimony.
"I prepare for every hearing, senator," Gonzales said.
"Do you prepare for all your press conferences? Were you prepared for the press conference where you said there weren't any discussions involving you?" snapped Specter, the panel's ranking minority member.
Later, Specter told Gonzales that "your credibility has been significantly impaired by the panorama of the responses you've made."
Specter stopped short of calling for Gonzales to step aside, saying that's up to Gonzales and President Bush to decide.
For the moment and on the surface at least, Gonzales retains the confidence of Bush, who issued a supportive statement following the hearing.
"President Bush was pleased with the attorney general's testimony today ... ," the White House said. "The attorney general has the full confidence of the president."
The scandal over the firings began early this year when it became clear that politics may have played a role when the Bush administration orchestrated the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, one in June and seven on Dec. 7.
U.S. attorneys serve at the will of the president, but as a practical matter firing them during a presidential administration for anything but significant wrongdoing is almost unheard of because of a tradition of insulating them from politics.
The controversy over the dismissals erupted into a bona fide scandal when Gonzales and other top officials claimed that the prosecutors were let go because of poor performance and then offered shifting explanations of their purported shortcomings and how they were targeted for removal.
Frustrated lawmakers complained that Gonzales shed little light on two questions that brought him before the committee: Who masterminded the firings and how were candidates for the dismissal list selected?
The attorney general said "I don't recall" at least 54 times during five hours of testimony, according to a transcript of the proceedings.
"I have a very hard time with your telling me to this day you don't know who suggested that each of these seven people on that December 7th list -- nobody knows how they got there," said California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Democrats have tried to tie the White House to the firings, and in his testimony Gonzales confirmed that he had conversations with Bush last Oct. 11 and with White House senior adviser Karl Rove in the fall of 2006 concerning complaints about a lack of attention to vote fraud prosecutions in Milwaukee, Philadelphia and New Mexico.
The U.S. attorney in New Mexico, David Iglesias, was a last-minute addition to the list of those fired in December.
Gonzales said he approved the firing of Iglesias because of "what I understood to be the consensus recommendation of senior leadership of the department," but he offered no specific shortcomings.
Iglesias has said he believes he was fired because he did not pursue political corruption cases against Democrats vigorously enough to please New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who complained to the Bush administration.
\ Questions about Fitzgerald
Under questioning by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Gonzales said he didn't remember seeing evaluations of U.S. attorneys by his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, in which Chicago U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald, a top terrorism prosecutor and the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case, was rated as undistinguished.
"I think Mr. Fitzgerald is an outstanding prosecutor," Gonzales said.
Last month, Sampson told the Senate panel that he briefly proposed to then-White House counsel Harriet Miers that Fitzgerald be placed on the list of prosecutors to be fired.
Gonzales said he didn't recall Sampson speaking to him about dismissing Fitzgerald.
The hearing was attended by protesters clad in pink and orange outfits bearing signs like "Pink Slip Gonzales" and "Arrest Gonzales."
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