Gonzales’ Fate Hangs In The Balance
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales remains in the firing line over the firing of 8 U.S. Attorneys, a move Washington insiders say was politically motivated. Sen. Patrick Leahy has called for subpoenas against White House officials involved in the firings, including Bush strategist Karl Rove and ex-White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers. Leahy has vowed to get to the bottom of the scandal saying he will settle for nothing less than public testimony from those involved.
Calls for Gonzales’ resignation were made by leading Democrats but also by a few Republicans, most notably Senator John Sununu. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ former chief of staff, who resigned following the breaking of the scandal, released a statement saying that a plan to dismiss the Attorneys in question had been in the works since the 2004 elections. Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer, who is heading the senate probe, has raised doubts over whether the White House will indeed cooperate with the investigation, pointing to constantly changing stories of those involved. Gonzales, for example, said the firings were motivated by poor performance of the attorneys in question but has since changed his story.
White House Spokesman Tony Snow tried to downplay both Rove’s and the president’s involvement in the scandal, replying to inquiries as to who first floated the idea of dumping the attorneys Snow replied that the “hazy memorys” of those involved made it unclear. Accusations have been leveled at Miers saying she first suggested the firing of all 93 attorneys and their replacement with those more sympathetic to Bush’s cavalier interpretation of the constitution. The scandal in any case is showing no signs of abating, only adding to the troubles of an embattled White House trying to recover from the prosecution of a top aide in the CIA leak case, as well as allegations that the FBI knowingly abused the patriot act.
March 19 2007 12:52 am | Iraq and Republicans and George Bush and FBI and Scandals and Karl Rove
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