GOP Senators: Gonzales Has Credibility Problem

March 25, 2007 — -- Support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales eroded further today among the Bush administration's Republican allies in Congress, as three leading Senate Republicans questioned the credibility of the nation's top law enforcement officer and his ability to remain in office.

"We have to have an attorney general who is candid and truthful," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking Republican on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" today. "And if we find out he's not been candid and truthful, that's a very compelling reason for him not to stay on."

Another committee member, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., agreed.

"Well, he has said some things that just don't add up," Graham said on CBS' "Face the Nation" program. "I like him as a person. I really do like Attorney General Gonzales. But he has been wounded."

The statements by key senators indicate an escalation in the confrontation between Capitol Hill and the White House over Gonzales that will continue to play itself out in the coming week.

Both Hagel and Graham are expected to join in aggressive questioning of Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, when he appears Thursday before the Judiciary Committee.

Gonzales himself has also agreed to appear in the coming weeks. The president has cited executive privilege in declining to allow former White House counsel Harriet Miers and other White House officials to testify under oath on Capitol Hill.

The independent-minded Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., also expressed strong reservations in an appearance on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."

"He's got a problem," Hagel said. "You cannot have the nation's chief law enforcement officer with a cloud over his credibility."

The latest documents released by the Justice Department suggest Gonzales was more involved in the decision to fire eight federal prosecutors than he has previously admitted.

One of the fired prosecutors said the plan apparently was hatched by the president's top advisers in the White House -- for political reasons.

"It looks like that authority was delegated down through Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, Judge Gonzales and all the way down to a bunch of 35-year-olds who got in a room together and tried to decide who was the most loyal to the president," former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Arkansas told "Face the Nation."

The central question on Capitol Hill is whether Gonzales gave misleading answers about his involvement in the plan to fire the prosecutors.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he "was not involved in seeing any memos. Was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."

In fact, a series of e-mails reveal that he was involved in the discussions. One memo from Gonzalez' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, dated Nov. 21, 2006, and titled, "Re: U.S. Attorney Appointments," lists Gonzalez as among the attendees at an hour-long meeting on the subject.

Democrat Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., became the latest in a chorus of Democratic and Republican voices urging Gonzales to leave office.

"I believe he should step down, and I don't like saying this. This is not my natural personality at all," Feinstein told "Fox News Sunday" today. "But I think the nation is not well-served by this."

The president and many Republicans continue to stand behind Gonzales.

"I see no evidence that anything illegal was done, or improper," Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., told "Fox News Sunday."