Gonzales says he played a small role in 8 attorney firings

WASHINGTON – His job in jeopardy, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted Thursday he played only a small role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors. Skeptical senators reacted with disbelief.\n“We have to evaluate whether you are really being forthright,” Sen. Arlen Specter bluntly informed the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.\nThe Pennsylvania Republican said Gonzales’ description was “significantly if not totally at variance with the facts.”\n“I don’t want to quarrel with you,” Gonzales replied after Specter asked again whether his was a fair, honest characterization.\nThe exchange punctuated a long morning in the witness chair for Gonzales, who told the committee there was no impropriety in last winter’s firings and the decision was “justified and should stand.”\nGonzales conceded that “reasonable people might disagree” with the decision. He said the process by which the U.S. attorneys were dismissed was “nowhere near as rigorous or structured as it should have been.”\nOffering an apology to the eight and their families, he also said he had “never sought to mislead or deceive the Congress or the American people” on that or any other matter.\nMajority Democrats, too, expressed skepticism at the attorney general’s testimony.\n“Since you apparently knew very little about the performance about the replaced United States attorneys, how can you testify that the judgment ought to stand?” asked Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.\nSen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Gonzales whether he had reviewed the evaluation records of the dismissed prosecutors, who Justice Department officials initially said had been fired for inadequate performance. He said he had not.\nGonzales sat alone at the witness table in a crowded hearing room for the widely anticipated hearing. There was no doubt about the stakes involved for a member of President Bush’s inner circle, under pressure to resign since the dismissal of the prosecutors spawned a scandal that has yet to subside.\n“The moment I believe I can no longer be effective I will resign as attorney general,” Gonzales said, after first making it clear he did not believe it had come to that.\nThe attorney general began his turn as a witness after a tongue-lashing from Sen. Patrick Leahy, the committee’s chairman.\n“Today the Department of Justice is experiencing a crisis of leadership perhaps unrivaled during its 137-year history,” said the Vermont Democrat. “There’s a growing scandal swirling around the dismissal” of prosecutors, he added.\nSpecter offered no more comfort in his opening remarks.\nHe said the purpose of the hearing was to determine whether the committee believes that Gonzales should remain in office. “As I see it, you come to this hearing with a very heavy burden of proof,” Specter said as Gonzales listened intently, lips pursed, a few feet away.\n“This is not a game of gotcha,” said Specter. In a reflection of the stakes, he told the attorney general he faced the equivalent of a “reconfirmation hearing.”\nProtesters wearing orange garb and pink police costumes were among the spectators. The words “Arrest Gonzales” were duct-taped to their backs.\nGonzales has provided differing versions of the events surrounding the firings, first saying he had almost no involvement and then later acknowledging that his role was larger – but only after e-mails about meetings he attended were released by the Justice Department to House and Senate committees.\nRepublicans had urged Gonzales to be more assertive and answer the questions more specifically than he had in his prepared testimony.\n“If he just answers the questions, he’ll be fine,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said before Leahy gaveled the hearing to order.\nAt points, Gonzales spoke in careful, lawyerly terms.\n“I now understand there was a conversation with myself and the president,” he said at one point.\nAnd responding to Specter, he seemed to differentiate between the formal bureaucratic process that led to the dismissals and his own involvement.\nDemocrats have stoked the controversy over the dismissals, suggesting there were political considerations involved. But the first few hours of the hearing produced few if any fresh details.\nGonzales acknowledged speaking with Bush and White House adviser Karl Rove about complaints over election fraud cases in New Mexico, where David Iglesias was the U.S. attorney.\nThe conversation with Bush occurred on Oct. 11, Gonzales said. Iglesias’ name was added to the list of those to be fired between Oct. 17 and Nov. 15 – a week after the November elections.\nCritics allege that some of the eight fired were dismissed to interfere with ongoing corruption investigations in ways that might help Republicans. Gonzales strongly denies that, but Democrats have maintained that a stiff denial is insufficient without more details.