With 'Friends' Like These, AG May Be in Trouble
If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is in need of someone to pull him back from the edge of the political plank, he hasn't gotten any help today from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In fact, the most conservative member of the panel -- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) -- just started the afternoon round of questioning by telling Gonzales to resign.
"I believe there's consequences for mistakes," Coburn lectured Gonzales, noting that the ousted U.S. attorneys don't appear to have deserved being fired and that Gonzales himself then butchered the process. "I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered, and I believe that the best way to put this behind us is your resignation."
With that, Coburn became the first Republican on the committee to call for Gonzales's ouster.
Outside of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), whose questions consisted of asking Gonzales about the sort of trips Gonzales made around the country and to the White House, none of the other Republicans on the panel has helped the attorney general.
Here's a round-up of the toughest comments and questions Gonzales faced from his own party in the morning round:
* Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.): Sessions, a former U.S. attorney of almost a dozen years in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, is a rock-rib conservative on the panel, a party loyalist. He's not been happy how his prosecutor brethren were treated. But Sessions wasn't aggressively going after Gonzales in his questioning until he asked the AG about a Nov. 27 meeting Gonzales attended at which deep discussions were held about the firings. "I can only testify as to what I recall. Believe me, I've searched my mind about this meeting ... but I don't recall the contents of this meeting, senator. I'm not suggesting that the meeting did not happen," Gonzales testified. At which point a stunned Sessions said: "I'm concerned about your recollection, really, because it's not that long ago. It was an important issue. And that's troubling to me, I've got to tell you."
* Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): Somewhat of a political maverick, Graham openly questioned whether Gonzales was telling the truth about the reasons behind the firing. Graham accused Justice Department and White House advisers of firing the eight U.S. attorneys for "personality" conflicts, then making up reasons for the dismissals after the controversy blew up in their faces. "Most of this is a stretch. 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," Graham said.
* Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas): Brownback was the most neutral of questioners on the Republican side, but his decision to allow Gonzales to slowly walk through the rational for the firing of six of the prosecutors revealed several troubling developments. The attorney general acknowledged that, on the day of the prosecutors' dismissals, he did not know why two of the eight were fired (Daniel Bogden, the U.S. attorney for Nevada, and Margaret Chiara, the U.S. attorney for western Michigan).
* Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.): As noted in the first post from these hearings, Specter and Gonzales got off to a very rough start, bickering over the AG's preparation efforts for press conferences and hearings. But Specter went on to lay out a series of meetings and conversations Gonzales had with his staff, White House aides and President Bush -- meetings dealing with at least three of the prosecutors who were fired -- and concluded his round of questioning with this comment: "We have to evaluate whether you are really being forthright in saying that you, quote, 'should have been more precise,' close quote, when the reality is that your characterization of your participation is just significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts."
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/04/coburn_calls_for_consequences.html
