White House Hopefuls Position Themselves on the Justice Department Controversy

March 16, 2007 — -- Across the 2008 campaign landscape, presidential hopefuls wasted no time responding to the U.S. attorneys controversy. Some called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales while others waited out the storm to see what direction the political winds would blow.

Thursday's news cycle wove White House adviser Karl Rove into the fray when e-mails surfaced that heightened Rove's role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors. Moreover, the January 2005 correspondence revealed Rove as the brains behind the more dramatic idea of replacing all 93 U.S. attorneys after the president's 2004 re-election.

Rove Reacts

At an address to journalism students at Alabama's Troy University yesterday, Rove described the attorney firings as a mixture of personnel and policy.

Rove cited the Clinton administration's decision to replace 123 U.S. attorneys during his time in office (Bush has replaced 128 in the last six years), including the 93 who were replaced at the beginning of Clinton's administration. Rove wondered why those pointing their fingers at Gonzales now didn't have the same reaction then.

Rove called the situation "a lot of politics" and asked "the American people and Congress to look fairly and carefully at what's being said and done now."

Democratic Front-Runners Call for Gonzales' Resignation

Not surprisingly the Democratic contenders called for Gonzales' resignation in no uncertain terms.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Jake Tapper on Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said, "The buck should stop somewhere, and the attorney general -- who still seems to confuse his prior role as the president's personal attorney with his duty to the system of justice and to the entire country -- should resign."

Addressing her husband's replacement of U.S. attorneys when he took office in 1993, Clinton said: "There is a great difference. When a new president comes in, a new president gets to clean house. It's not done on a case-by-case basis where you didn't do what some senator or member of Congress told you to do in terms of investigations into your opponents. It is 'Let's start afresh' and every president has done that."

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told the New Hampshire Union Leader on Wednesday that he "would like to see Alberto Gonzales replaced."

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., also told ABC News that he thinks Gonzales should resign.

In a press release earlier this week, former Sen. John Edwards called the firing of federal prosecutors "the latest and most disturbing sign of the politicization of justice" under the president.

"[Gonzales] betrayed his public trust by playing politics when his job is to enforce and uphold the law. By violating that trust, he's done a great disservice to his office," Edwards said in a statement.

Mike Gravel, former Democratic senator from Alaska, called the flap "the most partisan and mean-spirited in American history." Gravel believes resignations "understate the futility that our nation finds itself in."

GOP Candidates Take a Softer Tack

In an interview with ABC News from the Straight Talk Express, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., expressed concern for what has unfolded in the Justice Department scandal, saying that Gonzales should appear before Congress on the issue but stopped short of calling for Gonzales' ouster.

"The whole issue is of great concern to the American people and to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle," McCain told ABC News' Jake Tapper yesterday in Iowa. "There's no doubt about that."

On CNN's "Larry King Live," Mitt Romney, former Republican governor of Massachussetts, hedged his bets.

"I think you look at each case and gather this information. It certainly raises questions and that's why there has been the public scrutiny and that's why I think you'll see Congress and others ask for more information," Romney said. "Again, we don't mind people who carry out a political philosophy that is in line with the president. But we don't think that political pressure should be applied to pursue legal challenges or prosecutions."

In New Hampshire, Gov. Mike Huckabee called for those involved to be "up front."

"I don't think there's any criminal activity going on," Huckabee said. "I don't think there is anything that is inappropriate in terms of a president exercising his prerogative."

Kucinich Stays Away From the Fray

Still, one candidate refuses to be brought into the furor surrounding the attorney general.

Presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, believes the U.S. attorney firings are a "flavor-of-the-moment issue." Kucinich's focus remains on fixing the U.S. position in what he calls the "immoral and illegal war" in Iraq.