Specter: Gonzales undermines AG's office

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has hurt the Bush administration and the Justice Department with his poor handling of the firing of eight federal prosecutors, a leading Republican said Sunday.

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Gonzales was certainly undermining himself and his agency's law enforcement efforts.

"The attorney general's testimony was very, very damaging to his own credibility. It has been damaging to the administration," Specter said of Gonzales' appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee this past week. "No doubt, it is bad for the Department of Justice. It is harmful. There has been a very substantial decrease in morale."

But Specter stopped short of adding his name to the growing ranks of lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, calling on Gonzales to resign.

"I don't challenge anybody else who wants to do it," Specter said. "My own mindset is to leave it up to the attorney general and the president."

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."

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 couldn't recall key details about the prosecutors' firings or about a key November meeting that documents show he attended.

"All of America saw why so many of us had felt for so long that he shouldn't be attorney general," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., a Judiciary committee member and one of Gonzales' most vocal critics. "He was not in command of the facts. He contradicted himself. And he doesn't really appreciate the role of attorney general."

Schumer maintained Sunday that Gonzales ought to step down as soon as possible.

Asked whether Gonzales should resign, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., said: "I don't think he can be effective" if he remains in office.

"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."

But some give Gonzales a chance of getting past the flap.

"I think he can survive," said Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., a member of the Judiciary committee and GOP presidential hopeful. Gonzales has "got difficulties, he's got problems," Brownback said. But as long as the attorney general has got President Bush's backing then "it's time to move on" and drop the calls for him to resign, he said.

Republican Sens. John Sununu (news, bio, voting record) of New Hampshire and Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record) of Oklahoma 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."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., 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 GOP committee member, Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., 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."

Specter and Schumer spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Leahy was on CBS' "Face the Nation" and Brownback appeared on CNN's "Late Edition.

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On the Net:

Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov

Specter vs. Gonzales -- Round 1

Less than a minute into his questioning, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) snapped at Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in an exchange that didn't bode well for Gonzales and his much ballyhooed make-or-break testimony in defending his role in the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.

The unexpected attack from the committee's top Republican immediately put Gonzales on the defensive.

Specter told Gonzales his opening statement about his involvement in the controversial firings continued "this same pattern of not being candid," and that it was still unclear whether the attorney general was directly involved in the process or just delegating authority. When Specter derisively noted how much time Gonzales has spent preparing for the hearing during the past two weeks, the attorney general snapped: "I prepare for every hearing."

Sparks then flew.

Specter, who has so far resisted calling for Gonzales's resignation, apparently didn't like being interrupted, and bristled at the tone of the attorney general's voice. So the Pennsylvania Republican began mocking Gonzales's performance at a March 13 press conference in which he said he had not been involved in "discussions" nor seen any "memos" about the firing plan. Those statements have now been clearly rebutted by the thousands of pages of documents the Justice Department has released.

"Were you prepared for that press conference, were you prepared for that press conference?" Specter said. Then, as Gonzales tried to answer, Specter kept interrupting, his voice growing louder. "What I'm asking you is, were you prepared for that press conference?"

Specter cut off Gonzales before he could fully answer, moving on in his questioning with one final dismissive remark: "I don't think you're going to win a debate about your preparation."

And that, in the first two hours of testimony and questions and answers, was the sharpest give-and-take. It's doubtful one small exchange would be determinative in Specter's view of whether Gonzales should retain his post. But in a hearing in which Gonzales is trying desperately to shore up his support among Republicans, and fend off calls for his resignation, it was an ominous start. If Specter sours on him, other Republican senators are likely to follow.

Other early highlights from the first two hours of the hearing:

* Gonzales's strong rebuttal to suggestions from Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) that prosecutors politicized an investigation into a gubernatorial aide in Wisconsin. He accused the Wisconsin senators of attacking well meaning career prosecutors, declaring: "What does that say to that attorney general, to that local prosecutor, to the career prosecutors?" Earlier, he told Kohl:: "This is not about Alberto Gonzales. This is about what's best for the Department of Justice. ... The work of the department continues."

*Gonzales specified for the first time the date - Oct. 11 -- that President Bush told him of concerns about a lack of voter-fraud prosecutions by David C. Iglesias as U.S. attorney in New Mexico. He also said that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) had complained multiple times about Iglesias' prosecution record, but specified that it was about a lack of prosecution of "public corruption cases." Five days after Bush spoke with Gonzales, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) called Iglesias about his handling of a public corruption case in Albuquerque. And less than three weeks after the Bush conversation with Gonzales, Domenici called Iglesias about the Albuquerque case. On Nov. 7, a new firing list emerged for U.S. attorneys and Iglesias' name appeared for the first time.

*Two days after recusing himself from the Ethics Committee's examination of Domenici's role in the Iglesias firing, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) was given permission by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to sit in on the hearing at the dais. He's not on the committee, but Salazar -- one of two Hispanic Senate Democrats -- has been an ally of Gonzales in the past. He introduced him at the January 2005 confirmation hearing for Gonzales.

By Paul Kane | April 19, 2007; 12:30 PM ET
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