With Senate and Gonzales, Familiarity Breeds Contempt

The Gonzales Justice Department's problems have mushroomed since the initial accusations that he fired U.S. attorneys to stymie the prosecutions of Republican lawmakers. Then came admissions that the Justice Department had improperly politicized the hiring of prosecutors. Recent testimony points to witness tampering and false testimony by Gonzales and his top lieutenants. Gonzales was even discovered to have staged a late-night raid on the hospital bed of his predecessor. And now he's accused of mishandling the USA Patriot Act, the death penalty and a major drug case.

As he fielded complaints yesterday, Gonzales had no briefing book before him; this made sense, because he had no answers for the senators' questions.

Leahy asked if Gonzales would block prosecutors from prosecuting contempt-of-Congress cases. "I'm not going to answer that question," the witness answered.

"Do you think constitutional government in the United States can survive if the president has the unilateral authority to reject congressional inquiries?" Specter pressed.

"I'm not going to answer this question."

Specter pronounced the situation "hopeless" and moved on to another question.

"I'm not going to answer that question," Gonzales said anew.

"How about the death penalty case?" Specter pursued.

"I have no specific recollection as to this particular case," the attorney general said. Whitehouse threw his reading glasses to the table and smacked his palm to his forehead.

Gonzales spread his contempt widely. When Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) asked about closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, Gonzales wisecracked: "I guess we could turn them loose, senator." When Whitehouse asked about FBI Director Robert Mueller, Gonzales shot back acidly: "I'm not Director Mueller." He even shut down Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the one remotely friendly questioner, with a quick "I can't recall."

The attorney general's ignorance was equally broad and bipartisan. "I don't know," he said when Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked about suspicious changes made recently to voter-fraud prosecutions. "I can't answer," he told Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) when asked about the department's handling of voting-rights cases.

"That's a good question," he said when Whitehouse inquired why Gonzales granted Vice President Cheney's office access to criminal investigations. "I did not review this case," he said when Specter asked about a Justice Department settlement over OxyContin abuse.

Predictably, the senators did not react well to Gonzales's brush-off. "Something's rotten in Denmark," submitted Feinstein.

Specter pronounced Justice Department morale at an "all-time low," then subtly suggested that Gonzales quit in "the interests of the Department of Justice and the interests of the American people."

"You wish to say something?" Leahy asked the witness after the contempt subsided.

Gonzales just shook his head.