News
Mar 13 2007
Gonzales’ Support in Congress Shaky
A series of missteps by the Justice Department has left Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales with only lukewarm backing from Republicans as Democrats call for his resignation.
In the wake of revelations that the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys were the result of a coordinated campaign between White House and Justice Department officials, Gonzales said Tuesday he had no intention of stepping down, and he received a hearty endorsement from the White House.
But Democrats said they would press ahead with oversight and legislation.
The chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary panels made clear that they wanted to hear from more administration officials, including presidential adviser Karl Rove, whether or not the officials decided to cooperate voluntarily.
“Make no mistake about it, this has become as serious as it gets,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who has led the Senate inquiry.
The imbroglio over the fired U.S. attorneys, combined with a March 9 Justice Department report that the FBI systematically abused its investigative powers in recent years, has put serious new strains on Gonzales’ already tense relationship with lawmakers in both parties.
In the two years he has served in the post, Gonzales has been a steadfast champion of the administration’s policies on legal rights for enemy combatants, warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency and other issues. Even some Republicans — most notably the former GOP chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary committees — have been frustrated by what they see as slow and incomplete responses from the Justice Department.
Lawmakers had similar frustrations with Gonzales’ predecessor, John Ashcroft. But unlike Ashcroft, a former conservative Republican senator from Missouri (1995-2001), Gonzales has no natural reservoir of goodwill on Capitol Hill.
His constituency of one — President Bush — has lost popularity in the country and is confronted by a hostile Congress.
Now Gonzales finds himself grappling with a series of explosive revelations — on the U.S. attorneys issue and the FBI — that are likely to be a topic of conversation and investigation in Washington for many months.
Bush’s congressional allies are sensitive to the perception that by mishandling both issues, Gonzales has handed Democrats political ammunition.
“If you just look at it in context, we don’t need something else that looks like we don’t know how to govern effectively,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. “It’s a small thing [about the fired U.S. attorneys], but it’s another straw on the back of the camel.”
However, DeMint also said that Gonzales should not lose his job over the U.S. attorneys affair.
Even among conservative Senate Judiciary Republicans, though, backing for Gonzales was tepid.
Arizona Republican Jon Kyl — one of the administration’s staunchest supporters in the Senate — would not comment on whether he thought that Gonzales should keep his job.
Another of Bush’s closest Senate allies, John Cornyn, R-Texas, said, “Appearances are troubling. This has not been handled well. But in Texas, we believe in having a fair trial and then the hanging.”
Asked whether he supported the attorney general, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said, “I think we’ve got to have one.”
This one? he was asked.
“I didn’t answer that.”
Awkward Spot
Tuesday’s revelations about the close coordination between the Justice Department and the White House on the firing of the U.S. attorneys left Gonzales in an awkward position between defending himself and saying he was responsible.
E-mail messages between administration officials, released Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department, show that the eight former prosecutors were carefully chosen for removal after the White House counsel’s office suggested firing all of those whose original four-year terms had expired.
The administration executed a coordinated plan to fire seven of the attorneys last December, including a series of phone calls to Republican senators, and braced for fallout from lawmakers.
Gonzales summoned reporters to his conference room at the Justice Department to make clear that he would “in no way support an effort to circumvent [the Senate’s] constitutional role” in confirming U.S. attorneys.
Gonzales said he took responsibility for the mistakes in how the department handled the dismissals but placed much of the blame on his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. He said Sampson, who resigned March 12, was in charge of identifying underperforming U.S. attorneys after the attorney general rejected former White House counsel Harriet Miers’ original proposal for a wholesale purge of federal prosecutors.
“I am not aware of every bit of information that passes through the halls of the Department of Justice, nor am I aware of all decisions,” Gonzales said — a statement that Democrats later ridiculed.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Judiciary Committee, rejected Gonzales’ suggestion that Sampson bore the brunt of the blame for the affair.
“I don’t find that credible,” Feinstein said. “The 93 U.S. attorneys are very important to the U.S. Department of Justice. This is the prosecution arm of the United States government. You’re telling me that my chief of staff could make changes, could tell me that on any given day we’re going to fire seven of them, and I wouldn’t know about it, is just incredible to me.”
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., said the administration documents showed “a coordinated effort initiated by the White House to purge every United States attorney in the country.” Conyers has directed his staff to invite officials from the Justice Department and White House who may know details of the firings to give depositions. If they do not come forward voluntarily, Conyers said, he will consider further subpoenas.
“The public deserves a full accounting of their involvement,” Conyers said.
The internal administration documents bolster critics’ claims that the administration deliberately got rid of the federal prosecutors to make room for ostensibly temporary appointees who could serve indefinitely without Senate confirmation under a provision in a 2006 law (PL 109-177).
An eighth U.S. attorney, H.E. “Bud” Cummins III of Arkansas, was dismissed in June to make way for a Rove protégé, Tim Griffin.
In a Dec. 19 e-mail message to associate White House counsel Christopher G. Oprison, Sampson said the administration should counter objections to Griffin by Arkansas Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor by stalling the two senators. The Associated Press had published a story that day that included complaints about Griffin by Lincoln and Pryor; Griffin forwarded a copy of the article to the Justice Department.
“I think we should gum this to death,” Sampson wrote, adding that the administration should “run out the clock” by asking Lincoln and Pryor to give Griffin a chance, then slowly evaluate their recommendations for a replacement. “All this should be done in ‘good faith,’ of course,” Sampson said.
“The only thing really at risk here is a repeal of the [attorney general’s] appointment authority,” Sampson continued. “There is some risk that we will lose the authority, but if we don’t exercise it then what’s the point of having it.” Sampson added that installing Griffin was “important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”
In a March 2005 e-mail message to Miers, Sampson rated one of the fired prosecutors, David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, as among the “strong U.S. attorneys who have produced, managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the president and the attorney general.”
Iglesias has alleged that Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather A. Wilson, R-N.M., engineered his ouster after improperly pressuring him to indict New Mexico Democrats in a public corruption probe. Domenici and Wilson have denied wrongdoing.
In a June 2006 e-mail message to the Justice Department, J. Scott Jennings, a White House political operative, said Mickey D. Barnett, an influential New Mexico Republican and a former Domenici aide who “was heavily involved in the president’s campaign’s legal team,” wanted to meet with a Justice Department official for a “sensitive” discussion about Iglesias.
Turning Up the Heat
Democrats used the e-mail messages to batter Gonzales, with some calling for his resignation.
Among those was Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Schumer, who said Rove, Miers and Sampson should voluntarily talk about their roles in the matter.
Schumer said Sampson’s resignation “does not take the heat off the attorney general. In fact, it raises the temperature.”
Schumer also called on Bush to “clarify his role” in the affair.
Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., for now playing the good cop to Schumer’s bad cop, did not ask directly for Gonzales’ resignation.
“The attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president,” he said. “The president has to determine what he considers openness and honesty in his administration.”
Leahy said the immediate focus should be on bringing the Justice Department officials before his panel.
Gonzales has already agreed to make several Justice Department officials available for questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Tuesday, Leahy said he wanted that questioning to take place in public.
“No more briefings,” Leahy said. “There will be very specific hearings. We’ll now have them under oath and in an open hearing.”
Late Tuesday, Leahy and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sent letters to Rove, Miers and deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley asking them to submit to questioning. The pair also requested relevant documents from Gonzales and White House counsel Fred F. Fielding.
In the wake of revelations that the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys were the result of a coordinated campaign between White House and Justice Department officials, Gonzales said Tuesday he had no intention of stepping down, and he received a hearty endorsement from the White House.
But Democrats said they would press ahead with oversight and legislation.
The chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary panels made clear that they wanted to hear from more administration officials, including presidential adviser Karl Rove, whether or not the officials decided to cooperate voluntarily.
“Make no mistake about it, this has become as serious as it gets,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who has led the Senate inquiry.
The imbroglio over the fired U.S. attorneys, combined with a March 9 Justice Department report that the FBI systematically abused its investigative powers in recent years, has put serious new strains on Gonzales’ already tense relationship with lawmakers in both parties.
In the two years he has served in the post, Gonzales has been a steadfast champion of the administration’s policies on legal rights for enemy combatants, warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency and other issues. Even some Republicans — most notably the former GOP chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary committees — have been frustrated by what they see as slow and incomplete responses from the Justice Department.
Lawmakers had similar frustrations with Gonzales’ predecessor, John Ashcroft. But unlike Ashcroft, a former conservative Republican senator from Missouri (1995-2001), Gonzales has no natural reservoir of goodwill on Capitol Hill.
His constituency of one — President Bush — has lost popularity in the country and is confronted by a hostile Congress.
Now Gonzales finds himself grappling with a series of explosive revelations — on the U.S. attorneys issue and the FBI — that are likely to be a topic of conversation and investigation in Washington for many months.
Bush’s congressional allies are sensitive to the perception that by mishandling both issues, Gonzales has handed Democrats political ammunition.
“If you just look at it in context, we don’t need something else that looks like we don’t know how to govern effectively,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. “It’s a small thing [about the fired U.S. attorneys], but it’s another straw on the back of the camel.”
However, DeMint also said that Gonzales should not lose his job over the U.S. attorneys affair.
Even among conservative Senate Judiciary Republicans, though, backing for Gonzales was tepid.
Arizona Republican Jon Kyl — one of the administration’s staunchest supporters in the Senate — would not comment on whether he thought that Gonzales should keep his job.
Another of Bush’s closest Senate allies, John Cornyn, R-Texas, said, “Appearances are troubling. This has not been handled well. But in Texas, we believe in having a fair trial and then the hanging.”
Asked whether he supported the attorney general, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said, “I think we’ve got to have one.”
This one? he was asked.
“I didn’t answer that.”
Awkward Spot
Tuesday’s revelations about the close coordination between the Justice Department and the White House on the firing of the U.S. attorneys left Gonzales in an awkward position between defending himself and saying he was responsible.
E-mail messages between administration officials, released Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department, show that the eight former prosecutors were carefully chosen for removal after the White House counsel’s office suggested firing all of those whose original four-year terms had expired.
The administration executed a coordinated plan to fire seven of the attorneys last December, including a series of phone calls to Republican senators, and braced for fallout from lawmakers.
Gonzales summoned reporters to his conference room at the Justice Department to make clear that he would “in no way support an effort to circumvent [the Senate’s] constitutional role” in confirming U.S. attorneys.
Gonzales said he took responsibility for the mistakes in how the department handled the dismissals but placed much of the blame on his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. He said Sampson, who resigned March 12, was in charge of identifying underperforming U.S. attorneys after the attorney general rejected former White House counsel Harriet Miers’ original proposal for a wholesale purge of federal prosecutors.
“I am not aware of every bit of information that passes through the halls of the Department of Justice, nor am I aware of all decisions,” Gonzales said — a statement that Democrats later ridiculed.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Judiciary Committee, rejected Gonzales’ suggestion that Sampson bore the brunt of the blame for the affair.
“I don’t find that credible,” Feinstein said. “The 93 U.S. attorneys are very important to the U.S. Department of Justice. This is the prosecution arm of the United States government. You’re telling me that my chief of staff could make changes, could tell me that on any given day we’re going to fire seven of them, and I wouldn’t know about it, is just incredible to me.”
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., said the administration documents showed “a coordinated effort initiated by the White House to purge every United States attorney in the country.” Conyers has directed his staff to invite officials from the Justice Department and White House who may know details of the firings to give depositions. If they do not come forward voluntarily, Conyers said, he will consider further subpoenas.
“The public deserves a full accounting of their involvement,” Conyers said.
The internal administration documents bolster critics’ claims that the administration deliberately got rid of the federal prosecutors to make room for ostensibly temporary appointees who could serve indefinitely without Senate confirmation under a provision in a 2006 law (PL 109-177).
An eighth U.S. attorney, H.E. “Bud” Cummins III of Arkansas, was dismissed in June to make way for a Rove protégé, Tim Griffin.
In a Dec. 19 e-mail message to associate White House counsel Christopher G. Oprison, Sampson said the administration should counter objections to Griffin by Arkansas Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor by stalling the two senators. The Associated Press had published a story that day that included complaints about Griffin by Lincoln and Pryor; Griffin forwarded a copy of the article to the Justice Department.
“I think we should gum this to death,” Sampson wrote, adding that the administration should “run out the clock” by asking Lincoln and Pryor to give Griffin a chance, then slowly evaluate their recommendations for a replacement. “All this should be done in ‘good faith,’ of course,” Sampson said.
“The only thing really at risk here is a repeal of the [attorney general’s] appointment authority,” Sampson continued. “There is some risk that we will lose the authority, but if we don’t exercise it then what’s the point of having it.” Sampson added that installing Griffin was “important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”
In a March 2005 e-mail message to Miers, Sampson rated one of the fired prosecutors, David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, as among the “strong U.S. attorneys who have produced, managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the president and the attorney general.”
Iglesias has alleged that Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather A. Wilson, R-N.M., engineered his ouster after improperly pressuring him to indict New Mexico Democrats in a public corruption probe. Domenici and Wilson have denied wrongdoing.
In a June 2006 e-mail message to the Justice Department, J. Scott Jennings, a White House political operative, said Mickey D. Barnett, an influential New Mexico Republican and a former Domenici aide who “was heavily involved in the president’s campaign’s legal team,” wanted to meet with a Justice Department official for a “sensitive” discussion about Iglesias.
Turning Up the Heat
Democrats used the e-mail messages to batter Gonzales, with some calling for his resignation.
Among those was Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Schumer, who said Rove, Miers and Sampson should voluntarily talk about their roles in the matter.
Schumer said Sampson’s resignation “does not take the heat off the attorney general. In fact, it raises the temperature.”
Schumer also called on Bush to “clarify his role” in the affair.
Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., for now playing the good cop to Schumer’s bad cop, did not ask directly for Gonzales’ resignation.
“The attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president,” he said. “The president has to determine what he considers openness and honesty in his administration.”
Leahy said the immediate focus should be on bringing the Justice Department officials before his panel.
Gonzales has already agreed to make several Justice Department officials available for questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Tuesday, Leahy said he wanted that questioning to take place in public.
“No more briefings,” Leahy said. “There will be very specific hearings. We’ll now have them under oath and in an open hearing.”
Late Tuesday, Leahy and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sent letters to Rove, Miers and deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley asking them to submit to questioning. The pair also requested relevant documents from Gonzales and White House counsel Fred F. Fielding.
