The White House on Monday offered tepid support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over a controversial prosecutor purge that may cost him his job, expressing "hope" that he will stay on.
"The president said he's got confidence in Al Gonzales," spokesman Tony Snow said amid a growing chorus calling for the attorney general to resign or be fired. "We hope he stays."
Asked whether Gonzales would stay on until US President George W. Bush's term ends in January 2009, Snow told reporters: "Well, we hope so."
A growing number of US lawmakers, including a number of Bush's Republican allies, has been calling for Gonzales to lose his job over the controversial mass firing of eight federal prosecutors in 2006.
Critics charge that the removals were political motivated, while the White House has changed its defense, at first insisting that the US Attorneys were fired for poor performance, then jettisoning that explanation when it became known that most had received glowing evaluations.
