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The Gonzales Clown Show
The Houston Chronicle editorial board writes: "Gonzales' testimony did not sufficiently settle the question of whether he directed the reviews and firings, or largely and irresponsibly delegated the firing of chief federal prosecutors to aides acting under the influence of White House political operatives. He maintained that the prosecutors' firings were not improper, but he couldn't seem to articulate how they came to be fired, or why."
The Boston Globe editorial board writes: "There were no bombshell revelations in yesterday's hearing, but it did provide new evidence of why Gonzales has been so deceitful about the firings. In at least some of the cases, the attorneys -- all Bush appointees -- were being canned for blatantly partisan reasons, either because the administration believed they were prosecuting Republican officeholders too aggressively or not prosecuting allegations of voter fraud by Democrats aggressively enough."
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Gonzales "could be trying to conceal not only the partisan nature of the firings but also the fact that Bush and Rove were personally involved in politicizing the US attorney offices," the Globe writes.
"Gonzales's testimony yesterday did little to dampen the well-founded suspicions that this attorney general did let politics pull strings in his department. [Sen. Patrick] Leahy's committee should not relent until it finds out who the puppet master was."
Dahlia Lithwick writes for Slate (where the Gonzo-Meter rates today's chance of a Gonzales departure at 95 percent): "If David Iglesias, former U.S. attorney of New Mexico, was really fired for any reason other than party politics, today was the day to disprove that. Gonzales didn't. In fact, he claims that the burden of proof is on the committee to prove he's done something wrong."
She also writes: "One of the finest moments comes when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., busts out a big, big chart. . . . The chart compares the Clinton protocol for appropriate contacts between the White House and the DoJ on pending criminal cases with the Bush protocol. According to Whitehouse, the Clinton protocol authorized just four folks at the White House to chat with three folks at Justice. The chart had four boxes talking to three boxes. Out comes the Bush protocol, and now 417 different people at the White House have contacts about pending criminal cases with 30-some people at Justice. You can just see zillions of small boxes nattering back and forth. It seems that just about everyone in the White House, including the guys in the mailroom, had a vote on ongoing criminal matters."
And Joe Conason writes in Salon: "The answer to Nixonian misconduct is no different now than it was during Watergate. Force the appointment of a special prosecutor and then put all of these public servants under oath in front of a grand jury."
The Coverage
Richard B. Schmitt writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, told by President Bush to repair relations with Congress over his handling of the U.S. attorneys affair, instead suffered new and withering criticism from senators of both parties Thursday, including questions about his judgment, candor and fitness to serve."
Dan Eggen and Paul Kane write in The Washington Post: "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales came under withering attack from members of his own party yesterday over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, facing the first resignation demand from a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and doubts from others about his candor and his ability to lead the Justice Department. . . .
"'While the process that led to the resignations was flawed, I firmly believe that nothing improper occurred,' Gonzales said. 'It would be improper to remove a U.S. attorney to interfere with or influence a particular prosecution for partisan political gain. I did not do that. I would never do that.'
"Yet the attorney general, who spent the past three weeks preparing for his testimony, struggled to recall key details of his involvement in the firings, including a pivotal conversation with President Bush."
David Johnston and Eric Lipton write in the New York Times: "In more than five hours of often-combative testimony, Mr. Gonzales, grim-faced, clasping his hands and hunched over, struggled to offer a coherent explanation for the dismissals. He apologized for his mistakes in what he said was a flawed process, but defended the removal of eight United States attorneys as proper. . . .
