Democrats Won't Reschedule Gonzales

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gestures as he addresses reporters during a media availability after he conducted a round table discussion with law enforcement officials about his Project Safe Childhood initiative in Boston, Friday, March 30, 2007. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia) (Stephan Savoia - AP)

WASHINGTON -- The White House scrambled Sunday to move up Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' planned testimony to Congress about his involvement in firing eight federal prosecutors, only to get a cold shoulder from majority Democrats.

The effort reflected the frustration by Republican senators and the White House over how long it is taking the embattled attorney general to explain himself under oath. Congress has just begun a vacation _ one week for the Senate, two for the House.

In a sign of Gonzales' diminished standing on Capitol Hill, the Senate GOP leader offered lukewarm support for the nation's top law enforcer, whose inconsistent explanations about the dismissals have become a distraction for the Bush administration.

Asked directly if he has confidence in Gonzales, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said: "I can honestly say the president does."

"What I can tell you at the moment is that he enjoys the support of the president, for whom he works," he said. "I think most Republican senators are willing to give the attorney general a chance to come up before the Judiciary Committee and give his side of the story."

Gonzales is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 17. White House counselor Dan Bartlett said the committee ought to reschedule the hearing for next week.

"Let's move it up and let's get the facts," Bartlett said. "Let's have the attorney general there sooner rather than later."

The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, said Gonzales had been offered earlier dates but turned them down. It was Gonzales who chose April 17, said Leahy, D-Vt., and that date will not change now because "everybody has set their schedule according to that."

"It's the date that the attorney general originally picked. It's the date the hearing will take place," Leahy said.

Until recently, department officials also said they wanted to give Congress enough time to go through the more than 3,000 pages of e-mails, memos, calendar pages and other documents detailing the decision to fire the prosecutors.

That changed Friday _ the day after Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, testified to the committee _ when aides said they would try to get Gonzales to Capitol Hill as soon as possible to explain his side.

In his testimony, Sampson said that Gonzales was deeply involved in the removal of the U.S. attorneys, contrary to the attorney general's public statements.