Gonzales maintains 'nothing to hide' as conservatives push him to resign
 The Attorney General maintains that he has "nothing to hide," even as conservatives push for his resignation, as the "Attorneygate" scandal continues to plague the Bush Administration.
"In what could prove an embarrassing new setback for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the eve of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a group of influential conservatives and longtime Bush supporters has written a letter to the White House to call for his resignation," Adam Zagorin reports for Time Magazine.
Time reports, "The two-page letter, written on stationery of the American Freedom Agenda, a recently formed body designed to promote conservative legal principles, is blunt. Addressed to both Bush and Gonzales, it goes well beyond the U.S. attorneys controversy and details other alleged failings by Gonzales. 'Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of the Constitution's time-honored checks and balances,' it declares. 'He has brought rule of law into disrepute, and debased honesty as the coin of the realm.' Alluding to ongoing scandal, it notes: "He has engendered the suspicion that partisan politics trumps evenhanded law enforcement in the Department of Justice."
But, in an advance release Sunday of his scheduled testimony this week before Congress, which is investigating his role in the firings, Gonzales said, "I have nothing to hide."
"I am committed to assuring the Congress and the American public that nothing improper occurred here," read his statement for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The sooner that all the facts are known, the sooner we can all devote our exclusive attention to our important work -- work that includes protecting the American people from the dangers of terrorism, violent crime, illegal drugs, and sexual predators," he said in the statement.
"I know that I did not, and would not, ask for a resignation of any individual in order to interfere with or influence a particular prosecution for partisan political gain," he said.
But Gonzales conceded he had made mistakes in his handling of the issue as well his deputies in the Justice Department.
"I made mistakes in not ensuring that these US Attorneys received more dignified treatment," Gonzales said.
"Others within the Department of Justice also made mistakes. As far as I know, these were honest mistakes of perception and judgment and not intentional acts of misconduct."
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales argued Sunday he did nothing improper in firing eight federal prosecutors, despite charges the attorneys had been let go for political reasons.
"I know that I did not -- and would not -- ask for the resignation of any US attorney for an improper reason," Gonzales wrote in The Washington Post Sunday.
"Furthermore, I have no basis to believe that anyone involved in this process sought the removal of a US attorney for an improper reason," he continued.
Gonzales backtracked from earlier statements that he was uninvolved in the process of firing US attorneys.
"While I have never sought to deceive Congress or the American people, I also know that I created confusion with some of my recent statements about my role in this matter," he wrote. "To be clear: I directed my then-deputy chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, to initiate this process; fully knew that it was occurring; and approved the final recommendations. Sampson periodically updated me on the review. As I recall, his updates were brief, relatively few in number and focused primarily on the review process."
But he insisted that during his conversations with Sampson, he "did not make decisions about who should or should not be asked to resign."
In the editorial, Gonzales invoked terrorism, saying that Department of Justice has "made great strides in securing our country from terrorism, protecting our neighborhoods from gangs and drugs, shielding our children from predators and pedophiles, and protecting the public trust by prosecuting public corruption" and the attorney firing scandal must not distract from those aims.
Gonzales is set to give his testimony on the matter before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where the attorney general promised that he is "committed to explaining my role in this process and will do so."
The New York Times in an editorial Sunday called for Rove to appear before Congress to clear the air.
"The only solution is to get these issues out into the open," Times editors wrote.
"Mr. Rove, who seems to be at the heart of this affair, should also be required to testify under oath, and in public," the daily wrote.
US Senator Chuck Schumer, who has led Democrats' challenge of the prosecutor firings, was not mollified by the attorney general's statement.
"The opening statement of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales does not advance his cause at all," Schumer said in prepared remarks Sunday, adding that "not a single important question we have asked is answered in his opening statement just released this afternoon."
Schumer added: "The questions he is asked and the answers he will give on Tuesday will be make or break for him.
(with wire reports)
Excerpts from Time article:
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The letter concludes by saying, "Attorney General Gonzales has proven an unsuitable steward of the law and should resign for the good of the country... The President should accept the resignation, and set a standard to which the wise and honest might repair in nominating a successor..." It is the first public demand by a group of conservatives for Gonzales' firing. Signatories to the letter include Bruce Fein, a former senior official in the Reagan Justice Department, who has worked frequently with current Administration and the Republican National Committee to promote Bush's court nominees; David Keene, chairman of the influential American Conservative Union, one of the nation's oldest and largest grassroots conservative groups, Richard Viguerie, a well-known GOP direct mail expert and fundraiser, Bob Barr, the former Republican congressman from Georgia and free speech advocate, as well as John Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, a conservative non-profit active in fighting for what it calls religious freedoms.
Fein, speaking for the signatories, told TIME that Gonzales' planned testimony to Congress tomorrow, the text of which has been released by the Justice Department, was a "terrible disappointment" that left unanswered key questions on which his job may now depend.
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FULL TIME STORY CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK
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