Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post. (Julia Ewan - Twp)

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Washington Post congressional reporter Lyndsey Layton was online Friday, April 20, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.

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The transcript follows.

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Lyndsey Layton: Good morning, chatters! Quite a week. Fredo fest, House passage of the DC Vote, Dems and Bush met to talk about Iraq bill with no result, the Senate Majority Leader says the war is lost, and the horrible events in Blacksburg. What's on your minds?

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Ashburn, Va.: Who's going to be the new attorney general?

Lyndsey Layton: Well Ashburn, let's get out the crumpled list we started making when this brouhaha broke: Former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson, who's making boatloads as PepsiCo general counsel; former solicitor general Theodore Olson; former deputy attorney general Laurence Silberman, now a federal appeals judge; Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff were among those names.

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Raiders: The FBI this week has raided businesses related to Reps. Renzi and Doolittle. Were the raids connected at all or are both related to the continuing Abramoff investigation?

Lyndsey Layton: Hi Raiders. Let's keep our scandals straight here.

Of the two, Doolittle is connected to Abramoff -- the lawmaker's wife, Julie, rank a fundraising business that did work for Jack Abramoff, Doolittle accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash from Abramoff and interceded on behalf of some of the lobbyist's clients.

The Renzi investigation is connected to a land deal he made in his home state of Arizona that as far as I understand is not associated with Abramoff.

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Bethesda, Md.: Aren't there records that Gonzalez could consult regarding when he made decisions or what high level meetings he attended? I forget things at work frequently and that's what my notes and records are for.

Lyndsey Layton: Bethesda, in his testimony yesterday, Gonzales claimed there was no written record of the decision made by Sampson to fire the attorneys.

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Los Gatos, Calif.: Good Morning. I had a questions and I know it was a good question, but I can't remember what it was. The process that I went through to formulate the question was flawed and I apologize, but I do remember that I had a question. I have searched my memory and can't recall the question.

Lyndsey Layton: Los Gatos. I had an answer for you but in the 30 seconds it took me to hit the buttons here and post your question, I cannot recall what it was. I am likewise sorry for that fact, but I cannot offer a response that I cannot recall.

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Odenton, Md.: Good morning Lyndsey. Of the names you mentioned as a possible new AG, why would any of them want to leave their current position/life to run DOJ for only the last 20 months of this abysmal administration? They can't even get anybody to agree to become War Czar because, as the typical explanation goes, the White House has no idea what it's doing.

Lyndsey Layton: Why indeed. Why did Gates agree to become Defense Secretary? Something about service or when the president asks you to serve you don't sit it out, etc. AG seems a little less like a death mission than DefSec.

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Springfield, Va.: What's going on with the investigation of Rep. "$90,000-in-my-freezer" Jefferson? Why is this taking so long?

Lyndsey Layton: The freezer raid was in 2005, plenty of time for that cash to thaw out. One of the snags in the case came last May when the FBI raided Jefferson's congressional office, sparking a legal tussle over whether the executive branch had violated the constitutional separation of powers. That debate is being played out in court and the documents seized are in limbo; meanwhile, a grand jury has been hearing other testimony and seeing other evidence.

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Portland, Ore.: Hi Lyndsey. Re: Gonzales -- it's not clear to me what happens next. If he chooses not to resign and Bush doesn't fire him, what can the Senate do then? Whose court is the ball in now? Thanks.

Lyndsey Layton: Hi Portland. If Gonzales won't step down and Bush won't fire him, it's really up to Senate Republicans and how hard they want to push for his removal.

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Laurel, Md.: Any chance Harry Reid will be running for president in 2008?

Lyndsey Layton: Um, no.

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Princeton, N.J.: Suppose the Dems win big in Congress in 2008. Do you believe there will be a strong effort to repeal the ban on late term abortions?

Lyndsey Layton: Hi Princeton. For a push to repeal the ban, the Democrats would need to increase their margin in the House, score a big honking win in the Senate and take the White House as well. Under those conditions, I think there'd be a strong impetus to repeal it.

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Thucydides: Did you watch Gonzales' testimony? The reviews of it are so negative, so completely negative, that I suspect he's the victim of a media pile-on. I mean, some of the accounts put it into the territory of myth in terms of how over-the-top bad it was. Are the media overreacting, depicting a C-minus performance as, instead, the standard by which all future bad appearances before Congress will be judged? I dunno, it's just hard for me to believe it was that bad. I mean, the man graduated from Harvard, he's gotta be pretty sharp.

Lyndsey Layton: Thucydides, I think the negative reviews have as much to do with the content of the hearing as the reaction of the Republican committee members as the day wore on. One by one, solid Republicans who have been loyal to the administration, grew fed up with Gonzales and that seemed to magnify the press reaction. By the way, a Harvard degree doesn't guarantee anything.

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Los Angeles: What is the record for the number of times "I don't recall" was used during sworn congressional testimony? Did Attorney General Alberto Gonzales break it yesterday? Were the questions that hard?

Lyndsey Layton: Great question! Does anyone know? I'll have to get our crack research department on it.

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Bethesda, Md.: At what point does monumental but narrowly focused amnesia become perjury? On Thursday the Attorney General of the U.S. seemed to know far less about his own prior actions than the senators who were questioning him. Do you ever recall seeing a more forgetful witness speaking to Congress? (There may have been one, but if so I've forgotten who.)

Lyndsey Layton: Hi Bethesda. While we're looking up the all-time record for "I don't recall" in congressional testimony, I think the Republican Senators largely turned on Gonzales because it didn't seem plausible that he had forgotten so much. That amnesia really hurt him.

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Arlington, Va.: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) asked for Gonzales' resignation. It would be hard to find a bigger supporter of President Bush anywhere. Can Bush afford to ignore this and keep Gonzales as Attorney General?

washingtonpost.com: Senators Chastise Gonzales at Hearing (Post, April 20)

Lyndsey Layton: Hi Arlington. I was surprised when Coburn told Gonzales he ought to resign, but by the end of the hearing it seemed almost inevitable since many of the Republican members had clearly turned against the AG. Like I said earlier, if Bush keeps standing behind Fredo, it will depend on how much Coburn and the other Republicans want to press this as an issue with Bush.

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Reading, Pa.: I haven't seen much about John McCain's insensitive comments about "Ba-ba bomb Iran" -- does he really think the American people will elect another president who is so casual about sending our troops to war ?

Lyndsey Layton: Hi Reading. That was quite a stumble for McCain, wasn't it?

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Flemington, N.J.: Last year, before the August Democratic primary, Sen. Joe Lieberman's campaign labeled $387,000 of expenditures of federal campaign money as undocumented petty cash. It didn't make as big a story as John Edwards two $400 haircuts -- in fact, it was a non-story. What would happen if candidates started following the Lieberman precedent, in your opinion? Do you think the news media would go after it as a story if John Edwards had reported, say, $50,000 of petty cash expenditures?

Lyndsey Layton: Hi Flemington. No, I don't believe it would. In this case, the disclosure of the $400 haircuts is irresistible on several fronts. It plays off the "Breck girl" moniker and the YouTube tape of Edwards attentively fluffing his own hair. But it also raises questions about Edwards' sincerity as a champion of working people who never in their life could afford a $400 haircut from a Beverly Hills stylist. The media love stories about hypocrisy, especially when it involves public officials

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Lyndsey Layton: Good heavens, that was fast. Thank you so much for spending the hour with me. I apologize if I didn't get to your question today - there were far more than I could handle. Enjoy the weekend, come back and visit in two weeks!

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