GOP Allies Concerned About Gonzales

March 13, 2007 — -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is finding few friends on Capitol Hill this week, even among his political party and even after he admitted in a press conference on Tuesday that "mistakes were made" in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Gonzales maintains he did nothing wrong in the firings and said Tuesday he would not resign over the flap.

Democrats say the firings were politically motivated, and e-mails and letters released to House and Senate investigative subcommittees today seem to show that officials in the White House created a target list of U.S. attorneys they wanted gone.

Republicans -- even normally staunch supporters of Gonzales and the White House -- are not defending the attorney general, but are saying there should be an investigation of the firings before a judgment.

Texas Republican John Cornyn, for instance, said at a press conference on Tuesday that he has known Gonzales for a long time and wants to let him have the chance to "explain himself."

"In Texas, we have a fair trial and then the hanging," said Cornyn, who, like Gonzales, sat on the Texas Supreme Court before coming to Washington.

Cornyn is generally considered one of the White House's staunchest allies on Capitol Hill, but Tuesday he said he is concerned about the U.S. attorneys matter. He was appearing, oddly enough, at a conference with Vermont Democrats and they were introducing, oddly enough, a bipartisan sunshine bill that would promote openness in government and set time limits for Freedom of Information Act requests, among other things.

It is Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who will run the congressional investigation into Gonzales' actions. Cornyn said that, "This has to be a fair examination. It should not be partisan." But at the same time, he said, "I support Sen. Leahy in his efforts to get the facts."

"I talked with the attorney general this morning," Leahy said calmly to reporters. He said he had brought up to Gonzales that there had been congressional hearings on the U.S. attorneys -- back in January, Gonzales had assured senators he would never fire a U.S. attorney for political reasons -- but it was through the newspaper that Leahy said he learned about the e-mails that make a White House connection to the Justice Department firings.