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Senators heap criticism on US attorney general over prosecutors flap
By John Heilprin
The Associated Press
April 23, 2007
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has hurt the Department of Justice and the Bush administration with his poor handling of the firing of eight federal prosecutors, a leading Republican senator said.
Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, stopped short of calling for Gonzales' resignation.
But he said there was "no doubt" Gonzales was undermining the agency and the morale of its employees.
"The attorney general's testimony was very, very damaging to his own credibility. It has been damaging to the administration," Specter said Sunday. "No doubt, it is bad for the Department of Justice. It is harmful. There has been a very substantial decrease in morale. There's no doubt about that."
The dispute over the prosecutors' dismissals has become a high profile clash between Bush's Republican Party and the newly empowered Democratic majority in Congress.
Democrats have accused the Justice Department and the White House of purging the prosecutors for political reasons. The Bush administration maintains the firings were not improper because federal prosecutors, known as U.S. attorneys are political appointees.
But a growing number of congressional Republicans have also expressed skepticism that Gonzales can be an effective head of the Justice Department.
Asked whether Gonzales should resign, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said: "I don't think he can be effective" if he ignores the growing pressure on him to resign as the nation's top law enforcement official.
"A lot of those calls are coming from Republicans," Leahy said. "He's lost the confidence of many Democrats and Republicans in the Congress, and many people throughout America."
Specter said Sunday that he did not think it would be appropriate for him to call for Gonzales' resignation, saying that is the decision of the president or Gonzales himself. Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Republican Sen. Tom Coburn are among the lawmakers who have called for Gonzales to leave.
Gonzales emerged from a bruising committee hearing Thursday in which he was scolded by senators in both parties and had memory problems. He claimed dozens of times he could not recall key details about the prosecutors' firings or about a key November meeting that documents show he attended.
Schumer, one of Gonzales' most vocal Democratic critics and the first to call on the attorney general to resign, maintained Sunday that Gonzales ought to quit as soon as possible.
"All of America saw why so many of us had felt for so long that he shouldn't be attorney general," said Schumer, a Judiciary Committee member. "He was not in command of the facts. He contradicted himself. And he doesn't really appreciate the role of attorney general."
Despite the criticism, Gonzales gave no indication Sunday he might soon resign. Gonzales remains focused on guarding against terrorism and keeping kids and communities safe, said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the department.
"He has acknowledged and apologized for the mistakes that were made during the handling of the recent resignations of the eight U.S. attorneys," Roehrkasse said in a statement Sunday e-mailed to The Associated Press, "and he intends to continue to work closely with the Congress to reassure them that he is taking all appropriate steps to rectify this unfortunate situation."
But some give Gonzales a chance of getting past the flap.
"I think he can survive," said Sen. Sam Brownback, a member of the Judiciary committee and Republican presidential hopeful. Gonzales has "got difficulties, he's got problems," Brownback said. But as long as the attorney general has got President George W. Bush's backing then "it's time to move on" and drop the calls for him to resign, he said.
Republican Sens. John Sununu and Tom Coburn have called for Gonzales' resignation. Coburn, a Judiciary committee member, told Gonzales on Thursday the firings were "handled incompetently" and he "ought to suffer the consequences."
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham also questioned whether Gonzales should stay. "You said something that struck me that sometimes it just came down to these were not the right people at the right time," Graham told Gonzales at the hearing. "If I applied that standard to you, what would you say?"
Gonzales replied he could still be an effective attorney general.
Another Republican committee member, Sen. Jeff Sessions, said in an interview "it's going to be difficult for him to be an effective leader." Sessions is a former federal prosecutor.
At the White House on Friday, spokeswoman Dana Perino heaped praise on Gonzales. "He has done a fantastic job at the Department of Justice," she said. "He is our No. 1 crime fighter. He has done so much to help keep this country safe from terrorists."
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