Alberto Gonzales: “I Don’t Recall”
Watch our video of the testimony yesterday by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and count all the times he "just couldn't recall"--his version of "the dog ate my homework."
In the aftermath of his testimony, newspapers across the country panned his appearance.
From the Seattle Times:
“Attorney General Alberto Gonzales looked like an ineffective, and at times clueless, leader in his testimony before Congress Thursday. This page already has called for the U.S. attorney general to resign. Many others, including Republican and Democratic elected officials, have as well, although President Bush remains supportive...Gonzales should go back and watch his testimony. If he applies the same criteria to what he admitted was mishandling of the firings--as Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma suggested--Gonzales would come to a different conclusion about whether he should stay.”
From Newsday:
“U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales failed to untangle himself yesterday from the knot of lies, contradictions and misrepresentations surrounding his firing of federal prosecutors who were involved in sensitive public corruption cases...The Justice Department and the professionals who work for it deserve better leadership. Many senators on the committee were in bipartisan disbelief that they were getting the truth from Gonzales about the reasons eight U.S. attorneys were dismissed…But at the end of the day, even the motivation no longer seemed to matter. With his equivocations, his inability to recall making critical decisions, and his testimony illustrating an abdication of many responsibilities to inexperienced and ideological aides, Gonzales only wound up making the case that he is too incompetent to continue running the Justice Department...Gonzales insisted he could repair the damage to the Justice Department. He can't. Gonzales is the one who should be fired for poor performance.”
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“If the senate hearing Thursday is any indicator, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should clean out his desk and depart. Dishonesty, incompetence, evasiveness--every sin in public life--were all pinned on the nation's top lawman. Quitting, not continuing, is the only option. He found few defenders on the skeptical panel with several senators putting it straight out: The hedged answers and partial responses over the firings of U.S. attorneys make it clear that Gonzales must go. The Capitol Hill session did him no good.…In its politics, the White House famously values loyalty above all else. It's a factor that Gonzales, a Texas long timer, who goes back decades with President Bush, has counted on to weather the scandal. But the Senate committee grilling should show the most diehard Bush loyalist that Gonzales' service is at an end. It's time for him to resign.”
From the Baltimore Sun:
“Paraphrasing Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the words to the musical Oklahoma!, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania observed at the end of the hearing, 'I think we've gone about as far as we can go.' It was obvious by that point that the attorney general wasn't about to provide the senators with anything that approximated substance--or precision. Senator Specter didn't urge Mr. Gonzales to resign; he counseled him instead to examine his own conscience. It will be interesting to see what the attorney general finds there.”From the Chicago Tribune:
“Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales faced two unappealing possibilities in his testimony to Congress on Thursday. He could admit that he was largely out of the loop on some of the most important decisions that the Justice Department can make: Who should serve as U.S. attorney? Or he could acknowledge he was at the center of the hugely bungled dismissals of several federal prosecutors. In other words: Was he clueless? Or incompetent? Unfortunately for Gonzales, his hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee created the impression that he was some of both...Over the past several months, Gonzales has generated suspicion and confusion with his shifting explanations and subsequent clarifications about this mess. The multiple accounts have infuriated senators. Add to that the earlier congressional testimony of former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson, which contradicted some of Gonzales' claims. Taken together, this episode doesn't inspire confidence that the attorney general acted in the best interests of law enforcement--and nothing else.”
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