GOP Support for Gonzales Erodes Further

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Tuesday, March 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

"The senator believes it would be helpful to have an attorney general that Congress can have more confidence in," said Smith's spokesman, R.C. Hammond.

Other Republican lawmakers spent Thursday urging colleagues to refrain from joining that chorus until they hear more from Gonzales and his aides directly.

"Let's give them a chance to respond before we get tough," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "I'm prepared to get tough, but I want to get tough with a basis for doing so."

The panel wants to question Gonzales about statements made by his deputies that the firings were not efforts to install new prosecutors without Senate confirmation. An e-mail released this week revealed the attorney general's top aide discussing how to "run out the clock" by invoking a new provision in the Patriot Act that would allow such indefinite appointments.

Any answers may come too late to save Gonzales' job, some lawmakers say.

One Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee who spoke on condition of anonymity because he has not yet announced his position, said Thursday he has told White House officials that Gonzales stands no chance. The lawmaker said he expects to be among other Republicans calling for Gonzales' resignation after the attorney general tells his story on Capitol Hill.

Regardless of Gonzales' fate, questions will be asked under oath of his aides and most of the prosecutors he fired. The Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas for five Justice officials Thursday as a safeguard against the attorney general's retracting his permission for them to testify voluntarily.

They are Sampson; Michael Elston, top aide to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty; Associate Attorney General Bill Mercer; Monica Goodling, Gonzales' senior counsel and White House liaison; and Mike Battle, departing director of the office that oversees all 93 U.S. attorneys.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the subpoena authorizations were not needed because Gonzales had agreed to make his aides available.

The Senate panel also authorized subpoenas for six of the eight fired U.S. attorneys. The six _ Carol Lam of San Diego, Bud Cummins of Arkansas, Paul Charlton of Arizona, John McKay of Seattle, Daniel Bogden of Nevada and David Iglesias of New Mexico _ testified under subpoena last week before the House Judiciary Committee.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., delayed until March 22 a vote on subpoenas for Rove; Miers and her deputy, William K. Kelley. E-mails released this week either authored by or mentioning Rove, Miers and Kelley appeared to contradict the administration's contention that Bush's staff had only limited involvement in the purge.

It's customary for new presidents to bring in their own team of prosecutors when they take office. Democrats say the Bush administration singled out some of its own nominees because they chafed at the president's priorities and efforts by Republican members of Congress and others to influence political corruption investigations.

"Eight U.S. attorneys who did not play ball with the political agenda of this administration were dropped from the team," said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois. "We have a right to ask what that political agenda was and whether or not it was a reasonable firing and dismissal."

Some of the fired prosecutors testified last week that lawmakers leaned on them to speed up prosecutions that would hurt Democrats. Others said they felt intimidated by the agency to stay quiet. All of them were miffed by the Justice Department's contention that the dismissals were performance-related. The department then fired back, enumerating publicly what were described as performance problems for each of the fired prosecutors.

Bush on Wednesday defended the firings but criticized how they were explained to Congress. The president said he still had confidence in the attorney general but implied that his support was conditioned on Gonzales patching things up with lawmakers.

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Associated Press writers Lara Jakes Jordan and Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed to this report.