By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 29, 2007; 7:08 PM
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.
He repeatedly called himself "the aggregator of information" in the process and "the keeper of the list," as if he had some ceremonial function in a ritual that went awry.
The hearing proceeded in fits and starts, interrupted by final votes on Democrats' war funding measure calling for a withdrawal from Iraq, and on two occasions by protesters. One yelled, "End the war now!" and the second chanted, "Fire all the liars and bring the troops home now!" They were quickly escorted from the room by police. Later, the hearing was forced into a brief recess after Republicans invoked an arcane rule objecting to the session.
"We must have been scoring even more points than we thought," Leahy said before he left the committee room.
Republican aides suggested the delay was merely a mix-up and it was over within 10 minutes. But it seemed to take on added significance under the klieg lights that Bush has repeatedly said he would never allow to shine on Rove.
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee's senior Republican, alluded to Rove's absence in his opening statement, saying he was interested in "the role that Mr. Rove played. And I think we ought to hear from him candidly, sooner rather than later."
A court reporter with several tape recorders sat not 10 feet from Sampson. It was a reminder of the White House's refusal to allow Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers or her deputy, William Kelley to testify on the record.
For Thursday, though, the tapes and cameras rolled relentlessly on Sampson, who said he was willing to stay all day to field questions. He nodded somberly when Schumer said he would take him up on that offer.
As evening set in, Specter, a former committee chairman known for being a stickler for time-limits, passed a note to Schumer with a minute-by-minute tally of how long the New York Democrat had run over with his questions. "Times Up," Specter scrawled, amid crossed-off notations down to the half-minute.
Specter "is importuning me on," Schumer finally said.
No, Specter countered: "I'm importuning you off."