Attorney General: 'This is not about Alberto Gonzales'
 During the first round of questions and answers in this morning's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the firing of eight US Attorneys, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales argued that his personal actions weren't the issue and he did not believe he needed to resign.
"This is not about Alberto Gonzales, it's about what's best for the Department," he said.
He added, "When I look back at these two years, I look back with pride...I have admitted to mistakes with managing this issue, but the Department in general has not been mismanaged, we have done great things."
The Attorney General was responding to an inquiry from Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI). He also criticized his opponents, who accused him of politicizing the Department of Justice.
"We've prosecuted Members of Congress, governors, Republicans," he said. "When you attack the department...you attack the career officials, they're the ones that are doing the work."
Gonzales also appeared to show a new tack in his defense, suggesting there may be questions he cannot answer because he fears compromising internal investigations within the Justice Department by the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of the Inspector General.
Talked with Rove on firing US Attorney
The Q&A began with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the committee's chairman, asking Gonzales a series of questions about David Iglesias, the former US Attorney in New Mexico. Gonzales first confirmed that he and top White House aide Karl Rove had discussed Iglesias' removal from office in the fall of 2006, but could not recall precisely when or where, or if the discussion had been on the phone or in person.
Leahy then asked when Iglesias lost the Attorney General's confidence. Gonzales said he had left the matter to the judgment of D. Kyle Sampson, his former chief of staff.
The Democratic Senator then spent time criticizing the argument that Iglesias had been an "absentee landlord" in the New Mexico US Attorney's office. He pointed to Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer, who is also the US Attorney in Montana, and noted that the judge in the district was very critical of Mercer because he spends "3 days a month" in the district.
"Sometimes the absentee landlord was created by your office," Leahy said.
Gonzales said he would have to get more information, but then pointed to US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who also served as Special Counsel in the Scooter Libby case, as evidence that so-called "dual-hatting" works.
Insists role in firings was "limited"
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) then questioned the Attorney General strongly about how he could claim his involvement in the process of firing the Attorneys was limited when it was apparent that he had discussions about the US Attorney for the Southern District of California, Carol Lam, with various politicians.
The Attorney General acknowledged that there were other discussions outside of the review process Kyle Sampson was engaged in. He said the department had received numerous complaints about Lam with regard to gun and immigrations prosecutions. Gonzales said he recalled being very concerned but did not view his discussions as overlapping with Sampson's project.
"Putting it in context, I would say my involvement was limited," Gonzales added, as he suggested the discussions he had were few and far between.
In an exchange with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Gonzales then insisted that his decision for the firing was not inappropriate.
"I know the basis on which I made my decision," he said, and it was not improper because it relied on the "consensus recommendation" that Sampson had generated.
But when Kennedy asked if the "consensus recommendation" had an improper basis, Gonzales responded, "I'm justified for relying on...the consensus recommendation of the department's senior leadership."
He added, "As you glean through the documents, I think you'll agree that nothing improper occurred here."
But to ensure that was the case, he noted, he had asked the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and Office of the Inspector General to investigate the process.
Other committee Republicans gave Gonzales an opportunity to defend his record. In response to an inquiry from Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), Gonzales offered brief explanations for the firings of US Attorneys other than Iglesias and Lam. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) also gave him an opportunity to defend the process by which the Attorneys to be fired were selected.
Takes full responsibility for firings
Before a short break, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) quizzed Gonzales on how the measure had been inserted into the PATRIOT Act that allowed the Justice Department to appoint interim US Attorneys without limit.
Gonzales could not recall how it had come to pass, but said it had come up "as early as 2004, and I did support the change in law, not to avoid the Senate's involvement but because I quite frankly did not like the Judiciary deciding who serves on my staff," he said.
The Attorney General also took full responsibility for the firing of the Attorneys when Feinstein asked where the buck stopped. However, he could not confirm that he or anyone else had looked at the performance reports completed on the US Attorneys before their names were added to the list or they were fired. He tried to emphasize that the performance reports were only one factor in the decision-making.
Senator Feinstein then read a lengthy list of Carol Lam's accomplishments as US Attorney in the Southern District of California. Lam has been identified as potentially fired because of her corruption prosecutions that have touched Republican Congress members. According to Feinstein, Lam could not have known that her accomplishments were being questioned.
But Gonzales was not swayed in his belief that he had made the right decision in firing her.
"She was acutely aware of concerns with her policies, she had letters from Members of Congress, and back and forth with the Department of Justice," he claimed.
On her immigration record in particular he argued, "You can't focus solely on alien smuggling; entry and re-entry cases are likewise important, this was a very important border district." However, the Attorney General did acknowledge that Lam might have "fans" for the other work she did in the district during her tenure.
More RAW STORY coverage on the Gonzales hearing can be found at the following links:
Gonzales claims he never discussed Fitzgerald's removal
Video: Senator Schumer takes the gloves off
Leahy: Justice Dept. has a crisis of leadership unrivaled in its history
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