I watched about an hour of his testimony last night. Better performance than his Senate testimony, but he's still a terrible witness.
No smoking gun, again, and still a patent partisan witch hunt. Rep. Sanchez from California was a complete joke. Those fools don't even try and hide the fact they are trying to scalp this guy.
Gonzales tells panel he doesn't recall any more detailsPOSTED: 11:22 p.m. EDT, May 10, 2007
Story Highlights• Attorney General Gonzales testifies on prosecutors' firings
• Republicans demand the investigation into firings be closed
• Hearing is Gonzales' first before House panel since Democrats took control
• Justice Department denies that prosecutors' firings were politically motivated
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats pressed Thursday for more answers on the firings of U.S. attorneys as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted he hasn't remembered anything new and Republicans demanded the investigation close.
"My feelings and recollections about this matter have not changed," Gonzales told the House Judiciary Committee, three weeks after telling a Senate panel he couldn't recall specific conversations or details in response to more than 70 questions.
Gonzales won more support from House Republicans than he got from their counterparts on the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, when only one GOP senator defended the embattled attorney general. (Full story)
This time, Republicans echoed Gonzales' call to move on, indicating that the embattled attorney general may have weathered the political storm.
"The list of accusations has mushroomed, but the evidence of wrongdoing has not," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the committee's senior GOP member. "If there are no fish in this lake, we should reel in our lines of questions, dock our empty boat and turn to more pressing issues." (Watch why Democrats aren't likely to back off soon )
Democrats showed no willingness to quit asking whether the White House ordered prosecutors not sufficiently loyal to the Bush administration to be fired. Democrats probed whether the Justice Department scuttled more prosecutors than the eight jettisoned over the winter, asking about prosecutor resignations in Los Angeles, California, and Missouri.
"The department's most precious asset -- its reputation for integrity and independence -- has been called into question," said committee chairman John Conyers, D-Michigan. "Until we get to the bottom of how this list was created, and why, those doubts will persist."
"Cooperate with us," Conyers appealed to Gonzales. "I'm trying, Mr. Chairman," the attorney general replied.
Morale at Justice Department sinking
Having survived months of calls for his resignation, Gonzales appeared less nervous. He acknowledged a sinking morale at the Justice Department in the wake of the prosecutor firings but made it clear he plans to remain as attorney general -- despite what he called his mistakes in overseeing the dismissals.
Republican members of the House panel moved on to other subjects -- though much of this questioning was no more friendly.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, asked why there had been no new developments in the federal bribery probe of Rep. William Jefferson, D-Louisiana.
"I cannot talk about that," Gonzales replied.
"Well, everyone is talking about it except you," Sensenbrenner shot back. "This is kind of embarrassing."
The questioning quickly turned back to the fired prosecutors.
Under persistent requests to reveal who originated the list of prosecutors to be fired, Gonzales maintained his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, put it together after gathering information from other senior officials in the Justice Department.
"I understood it to be the consensus of the senior leadership of the department," Gonzales said. He acknowledged, however, that presidential adviser Karl Rove raised concerns with Gonzales about voter fraud prosecutions in three jurisdictions, including New Mexico. David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney there, was later fired.
Democrats focused on whether Todd Graves, a former federal prosecutor in Missouri, was forced out a year before the others because he refused to sign a Justice Department lawsuit alleging voter fraud a year before the 2006 elections.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee requested answers from Graves' replacement, House lawmakers sought answers from Gonzales.
"I have no basis to believe that case had anything to do with Mr. Graves' departure," Gonzales said under questioning from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California.
Gonzales also said that Debra Yang, formerly the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, resigned in October to take a higher paying job at a private firm.
In the three weeks since Gonzales' Senate testimony, the department disclosed that it is investigating whether his former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, weighed the political affiliations of those she considered hiring as entry-level prosecutors. Consideration of such affiliations could be a violation of federal law.
More of the fired U.S. attorneys also have told congressional investigators they were warned that if they publicly protested their dismissals, Justice officials would publicly criticize their performance. And new allegations say U.S. attorneys were evaluated on their enthusiasm for pursuing voter fraud cases that might benefit Republican candidates.
Conyers is holding a subpoena for Rove but has not issued it. Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee last week subpoenaed Gonzales for all e-mails the Justice Department has gathered regarding Rove and the firings. (Full story)
In prepared testimony for Thursday's hearing, Gonzales said it's time to move on.
"Recent events must not deter us from our mission. I ask the committee to join me in that commitment and that rededication," he said, citing what he said were accomplishments in protecting national security and fighting pedophiles.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/10/gonzales.testifies.ap/index.html
