Bush Challenged on Iraq

"Quit claiming the e-mails cannot be produced and quit contending that the American people and their duly elected representatives cannot see and know the truth."

Peter Baker writes in this morning's Washington Post that Gonzales is the ultimate "loyal Bushie." As a result: "Few moments in Bush's presidency have tested the limits of loyalty more acutely than this one. . . .

"Critics believe this fixation on loyalty has left the president isolated from dissent and surrounded by ideological yes men, but it has also given him a team that has remained unusually cohesive through adversity, at least until recently, as more former insiders have spoken out critically. . . .

"Bush does not think Gonzales did anything wrong in dismissing the prosecutors, according to aides, but has been aggravated by his friend's clumsy, shifting explanations of what happened. In effect, advisers said, Bush is giving Gonzales a chance to fix the situation today. . . .

"Should he stumble, some Republicans said, Gonzales has a responsibility to fall on his sword, sparing Bush having to ask."

The New York Times editorial page asked four legal experts to propose questions for Gonzales. Here is one from Jeffrey Rosen: "Your determination to fire prosecutors who were not 'loyal Bushies' has its intellectual roots in the theory of the 'unitary executive,' which holds that the president should be able to extend his political control over all executive branch officers, including not only political appointees but also lower-level career officials. Are you familiar with the leading scholarly defenses of this theory, and do you agree with them?"

The Los Angeles Times editorial board writes: "At the risk of prejudging what Gonzales might say about the role he played in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, we reject the conventional wisdom that the hearing offers him an opportunity to save his job.

"The melodramatic notion that this is a 'make or break' appearance for Gonzales has been encouraged by the White House. . . .

"Gonzales will couple unambiguous denials of any personal wrongdoing with hedged defenses of what was done in his name. For example, he says in his prepared opening statement that 'based upon the record as I know it, it is unfair and unfounded for anyone to conclude that any U.S. attorney was removed for an improper reason.' That's just the sort of careful language one would expect from an attorney general who subcontracted his decision-making to a meddlesome White House at one end of the process and a hatchet-man chief of staff at the other.

"Congress should continue to untangle the sequence of events that led to these firings, and Gonzales' testimony might prove helpful. But nothing will rehabilitate his reputation as the under-qualified attorney general who was AWOL when a harebrained White House scheme to sack all 93 U.S. attorneys morphed into a narrower hit on targets that included two prosecutors whose decisions had embarrassed the Republican Party."

Joan Vennochi writes in her Boston Globe opinion column that "more important than the issue of one man's employment is this bigger question: Can the public ever get a straight answer from anyone in the Bush administration? The answer appears to be no, whether the matter is foreign or domestic."

CBS News is out with a new poll: "Of all Americans, 36% think Gonzales should resign or be removed from his post as a result of the firings; 28% think he should not, while just over a third is unsure. But among all who are closely following the story, more than half -- 52% -- think Gonzales should resign."