Dems Sound Off With Former Gonzales Aide

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 29, 2007, before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Justice Department firings of U.S. Attorneys. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook) (Dennis Cook - AP)

WASHINGTON -- It was just the kind of spectacle the White House is hoping to spare Karl Rove: a top administration official in a hearing room, right hand raised amid a glare of camera flashes, swearing to tell the truth and bracing for tough questions from outraged lawmakers.

Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department aide who resigned over the firings of U.S. attorneys, took center stage before a Senate committee Thursday with the requisite mea culpas and claims of foggy recollection that make for a textbook courtroom drama or high-profile congressional hearing.

With his frameless glasses and round face, Sampson even bore a resemblance to a younger Rove as he sat for hours of at times combative questioning. But while President Bush's political guru hammed it up at a media dinner this week as "M.C. Rove" in a rap spoofing his sinister image, Sampson was living through a more serious personal and political drama.

"I came here today because this episode has been personally devastating to me and my family," the 37-year-old lawyer told senators, departing from his prepared testimony. "It's no small thing to come up here and meet before this committee," he added later.

The marble- and wood-paneled hall near the Capitol was wired and lighted for optimal television and photo images. Sampson, former right-hand man to embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, did not throw his one-time boss or Bush under any buses or produce any smoking guns.

His appearance at the Senate Judiciary Committee did, however, give lawmakers leading the inquiry something else they wanted: the chance to sound off before the cameras about the ousters and point out the tangle of miscues and inconsistencies that have transformed a personnel flap into a crisis for the administration.

"We've learned that Attorney General Gonzales was personally involved in the firing plan after being told that he wasn't. We've learned that the White House was involved after being told that it wasn't. We have learned that Karl Rove was involved after being told that he wasn't. And we have learned that political considerations were very important after being told that they weren't," groused Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sampson, his brow furrowed and his mouth frequently in a tense frown, sat alone at a witness table surrounded by photographers who snapped away eagerly. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee chairman, had to ask them to stand aside so he could administer the oath _ their ultimate money-shot.

"I'd like to see the witness ... I, kind of, like to see who I'm talking with," Leahy said as photographers ducked.

Sampson then seemed to morph into the personification of all that went wrong with the firings, from a disorganized process _ he said several times he dumped hit-lists of federal prosecutors in a desk drawer without keeping a file _ to leaders who were tin-eared to the potential political fallout from the firings.

"I personally did not take adequate account of the perception problem that would result," he said.

Sampson resorted to the ultimate government drone's defense, casting himself as a bureaucratic cog in a faulty process.