GOP Senator Says Gonzales Should Be Fired

By Kathy Kiely and Kevin Johnson

WASHINGTON — Calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ ouster escalated late Wednesday when the first Republican lawmaker joined in.

“If I were the president, I would fire the attorney general,” Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., told USA TODAY.

Sununu, whose father served as a chief of staff to Bush’s father, joins a growing list of Democrats who are calling for Gonzales to go after revelations that the firing of several federal prosecutors was initiated by the White House.

In testimony last month, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty had given Congress assurances that poor performance, not politics, led to the decisions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Gonzales of “not telling the truth.”

In addition to the firestorm over the prosecutors, a Justice Department audit last week showed that the FBI, which is under Gonzales’ authority, misused its power to obtain secret information on Americans in terror investigations.

Sununu, who helped Democrats filibuster reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act until the Justice Department agreed to civil liberties protections, said his faith in the department’s assurances had been “misplaced.”

Sununu’s outspokenness underscores the worsening political climate for the president in Congress, where his administration has been criticized over the troop buildup in Iraq and the treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Sununu is one of a handful of Republicans facing potentially difficult re-election bids in Democratic-leaning states next year. His action might lead others “to be much more vocal with their dissatisfaction,” said former congressman Bob Barr, a conservative Republican who has accused the Justice Department of violating citizens’ civil liberties.

Bush, meeting Wednesday with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, defended his administration’s right to fire U.S. attorneys, who serve at the discretion of the president. He expressed confidence in Gonzales, but he conceded that the dismissals were handled poorly and that Gonzales owes Congress a better explanation. “Al has got work to do up there,” Bush said.

During the Senate hearing Feb. 6, McNulty — the nation’s second-ranking law enforcement official behind Gonzales — testified that the firings were directed by the Justice Department and that suggestions that the department’s actions involved politics were “like a knife in my heart.”

The testimony by McNulty, who has not commented on the firings since the hearing, fueled the controversy by prompting several of the dismissed prosecutors to defend themselves publicly.

“Up to the time McNulty testified, I had never talked about substantive issues (related to the dismissals) with my colleagues,” said H.E. “Bud” Cummins, one of the fired prosecutors. Although Cummins’ job performance was not cited as a reason for his dismissal, McNulty told the Senate panel that the seven others were removed for poor performance. That testimony, Cummins said Wednesday, “was when a change of course occurred in our attitudes.”

One of the most serious allegations was leveled by David Iglesias, who was ousted as the top prosecutor in New Mexico. Iglesias said he was removed shortly after two Republican members of Congress made unusual inquiries about pending corruption investigations involving Democrats prior to the November election.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., have said their calls were not intended to exert any political pressure on the course of the inquiries. A Senate ethics panel is examining Domenici’s actions.

A few days before McNulty was to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was reviewing his testimony with top department officials.

A top Justice Department official who attended the meeting said the officials reviewing McNulty’s planned testimony included Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Gonzales.

The unidentified Justice official — who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak publicly about the meeting — said Sampson expressed no objection as officials went over McNulty’s plan to tell the Senate panel that the White House was not behind the firings, and that it had approved them only after they were initiated by Justice.

What McNulty apparently did not know at the time, the official said, was that the idea for firing the prosecutors had been initiated two years earlier by White House counsel Harriet Miers — who at one point had suggested firing all 93 of the nation’s U.S. attorneys in order to hire prosecutors who would be loyal to the Bush administration.

According to internal e-mails the Justice Department released this week, Sampson had been in frequent contact with Miers and others at the White House to discuss prosecutors for dismissal.

The e-mails released this week also are at odds with McNulty’s remarks and drew attention to the role of Sampson, who resigned this week and couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet today to discuss subpoenas for top administration officials — including presidential adviser Karl Rove — who knew of the plan to fire the prosecutors. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.