White House Calls for Early Gonzales Testimony

By Richard A. Serrano

The White House on Sunday called on Senate Democrats to move up the appearance of embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At the same time, the GOP leader in the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, offered the attorney general only tepid support, joining a number of Republican lawmakers no longer willing to put their personal imprimatur on Gonzales keeping his job.

Asked directly if he had confidence in Gonzales, McConnell responded: “I can honestly say the president does.”

Pressed further on “Fox News Sunday,” he added, “I think most Republican senators are willing to give the attorney general a chance to come up before the Judiciary Committee and give his side of the story.”

Gonzales’ testimony before the Senate panel is scheduled for April 17 — a date shaping up as his opportunity to explain why the prosecutors were fired and what involvement the White House may have had in their dismissals.

More important, Democrats want Gonzales to square a number of conflicting statements he has made about his own role in the terminations.

He has said that he had only minimal discussions about the firings, but Justice Department documents released in the last few weeks show that he attended an hourlong meeting before giving the go-ahead on which prosecutors to replace.

“Let’s move it up, and let’s get to the facts,” White House senior adviser Dan Bartlett said on ABC’s “This Week.”"Let’s have the attorney general there soon rather than later.”

Bartlett, whose title is counselor to the president, offered no specific date. The Senate, in recess this week, is scheduled to reconvene April 10.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., who serves as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he would prefer to stick to April 17, which was Gonzales’ preferred date, even though he said administration officials asked him Saturday to move up the hearing. He said he told them no.

Until recently, Justice Department officials said they wanted to give Congress enough time to go through the more than 3,000 pages of e-mails, memos, calendar pages and other documents detailing the decision to fire the prosecutors.

That changed Friday — the day after Gonzales’ former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, testified to the committee.

In his testimony, Sampson said that Gonzales was deeply involved in the removal of the U.S. attorneys, contrary to the attorney general’s public statements.

Bartlett, the chief communications strategist at the White House, said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., a Senate Judiciary Committee member who has been leading the Democrats’ investigation, should either back off or resign his position as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which provides funding for Democrats running for the Senate.

Bartlett and other GOP leaders have complained that Schumer is using the scandal to drum up campaign contributions by sending out fundraising letters citing the investigation.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, came to Schumer’s defense on ABC, saying his colleague made a “clear distinction” between his work investigating the U.S. attorneys matter and his role with the Senate Democrats’ fundraising effort.

“Sen. Schumer has really drawn a clear line here,” Durbin said. “And I think as long as that line is held, there is no reason to question why he shouldn’t be a part of” the investigation.

(c) 2007 Buffalo News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.