Gonzales receives support of White House, top GOP senator

WASHINGTON – The White House and a key Republican senator reaffirmed support Saturday for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even as Democrats questioned his credibility for apparently misrepresenting his role in firing eight federal prosecutors.\nCritics said the latest document disclosure – more than 280 pages of e-mails, calendar notations and other documents sent to Congress late Friday – bolstered their case for Gonzales’ ouster.\nYet one longtime ally who largely has kept quiet about the attorney general’s fate issued a statement of support.\n“He has always been straightforward and honest with me,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “So, unless there is clear evidence that the attorney general deliberately lied or misled Congress, I see no reason to call for his resignation.”\nGonzales has said he participated in no discussions and saw no memos about plans to carry out the firings on Dec. 7 that Democrats contend were politically motivated.\nHis schedule, however, shows he attended at least one hourlong meeting, on Nov. 27, where he approved a detailed plan to execute the prosecutors’ firings.\nDemocrats said the new documents appear to show Gonzales was more involved than he claimed earlier.\n“How much scrutiny do we have to put behind everything the attorney general says?” the House Judiciary Committee chairman said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I know he’s busy, and he could have done things that he didn’t remember, but we’re going to give him as much rope as he needs,” said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.\nDemocratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Nov. 27 meeting “widens the gap between the evolving explanations the Bush administration has offered and the facts that keep coming to light.”\nBut White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said the documents do not conflict with Gonzales’ earlier statements.\n“The president continues to have confidence in the attorney general,” Perino said. “As the Justice Department said last night, these new documents are not inconsistent with its previous statements.”\nJustice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Saturday there are no plans for Gonzales to resign.\nAlso, several Republicans in both the House and Senate said they needed to learn more about how closely he was involved in the firings. Still stopping short of calling for Gonzales’ resignation, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., “thinks it’s better to have an attorney general that Congress has confidence in,” spokesman R.C. Hammond said.\nAt issue were statements Gonzales made at a March 13 news conference that appear to conflict with what the documents show.\nOn that day, Gonzales portrayed himself as largely unaware of the process of firing the prosecutors, depending instead on then-chief of staff Kyle Sampson – who resigned March 12 – to handle it.\n“I never saw documents,” Gonzales said then. “We never had a discussion about where things stood. What I knew was that there was ongoing effort that was led by Mr. Sampson, vetted through the Department of Justice, to ascertain where we could make improvements in U.S. attorney performances around the country.”