Republicans Criticize Gonzales, Consider Impeaching Bush
Barbara Ferguson, Arab News
WASHINGTON, 27 March 2007 - US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales'
"credibility" is at stake in an investigation of the dismissals of several
federal prosecutors amid disclosures that Gonzales knew more about the
firings than he recently has acknowledged, a bipartisan pair of Senate
Judiciary Committee members said Sunday.
Gonzales, who said earlier this month that he was "not involved in
any discussions about what was going on," approved plans for the firings
at an hour-long meeting in late November - two weeks before seven of the
dismissals - according to the latest of many documents the Justice
Department has released.
Gonzales' investigation has triggered a dispute between Congress and
the White House over the testimony of top presidential aides. After his
chief of staff's resignation in the firings uproar, the attorney general
told reporters that he "was not involved in seeing any memos," - a task he
said was left to his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. President Bush has said
he stands solidly behind Gonzales, who was White House counsel before
becoming attorney general in 2005. Several Democrats and a small number of
Republicans already have called for Gonzales' resignation, and Judiciary
Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, has demanded that former
White House counsel Harriet Miers and Bush political adviser Karl Rove
testify under oath about any role they had in the firings. This has
resulted in some lawmakers complaining that President Bush is flouting
Congress and the public with his Iraq policies and his protection of his
top president aides. They are considering impeachment as an option, a
Republican senator said Sunday.
Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Foreign Relations
Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for
Bush's impeachment.
"Any president who says 'I don't care' or 'I will not respond to
what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else' or
'I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed' - if a
president really believes that, then there are...ways to deal with that,"
Hagel said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
The White House had no immediate reaction to Hagel's comments.
Hagel, who is considering a presidential run, said lawmakers now
were ready to stand up to the president when necessary. In the April
edition of Esquire magazine, Hagel described Bush as someone who didn't
believe he was accountable to anyone.
"You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls
for his impeachment," Hagel told the magazine.
Meanwhile, senators were out in force on the Sunday talk shows to
weigh in on the Gonzales investigation.
"The attorney general's statement of just a few days ago has been
contradicted by a fact," Sen. ***** Durbin, D-Illinois, said on NBC's "Meet
the Press." "He was involved in a meeting. ...It really raises a question
of credibility.
"This shadow, this cloud, across the US attorney offices all across
the country has to be lifted," Durbin said, adding of Gonzales: "I don't
believe he enjoys the confidence of the American people or the Congress."
Growing questions within Gonzales' own party about his credibility
follow the release last week of Justice Department documents that show he
took part in a high-level meeting Nov. 27 held to plan the firings,
despite his repeated assertions that he had delegated the personnel
decisions to his staff.
"There are so many contradictions in what the attorney general has
already told us," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania. "We have to
have an attorney general who is truthful. If we find that he has not been
candid and truthful, that is a very compelling reason for him not to stay
on."
Despite the deepening crisis of confidence surrounding the nation's
top law enforcement officer, some observers expressed doubt that President
Bush would willingly abandon his close friend and adviser. They said the
White House fears the almost-certain battle that would ensue if Bush has
to get a replacement for Gonzales confirmed by the Senate.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=94240&d=27&m=3&y=2007
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