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Does Alberto Gonzalez remember anything?

As you surely know, yesterday was the Attorney General’s day in the sun, as he got to hang out with the Senate Judiciary Committee all day, answering questions mostly about the U.S. attorneys firings. Needless to say, it didn’t go very well.

At one point, just before lunch, he said that criticizing the things people at the Justice Department do is actually “attacking the career professionals.” Senator Dick Durbin responded by saying this was ridiculous, akin to “saying anyone who disagrees with the president’s policy on the war is attacking the soldiers.” He’s right, of course, but Senator Durbin also misses the hypocrisy of Gonzales’ statement: if we are to believe that these eight U.S. attorneys were, in fact, fired for something other than wholly proper and professional reasons, than it was Gonzalez and his buddies who actually attacked career professionals.

In any event, tt was apparent that Gonzales didn’t have many supporters on the committee when even the republicans were slamming him. Senator Arlen Spector said that Gonzales’ “credibility has been impaired.” Worse yet, Senator Tom Coburn said: “The best way to put this behind us is your resignation.” Doesn’t get more straight-forward than that.

My favorite thing about this whole thing is that, early on in the proceedings, Senator Chuck Schumer told Gonzales that the Committee didn’t want lots of “I don’t knows” and shady answers. Apparently he wasn’t clear enough on this because, by lunch, Gonzales had given at least 45 “I don’t know” or “I don’t recall” answers (I was watching MSNBC last night and they showed someone sitting in the galley, clearly not a Gonzales fan, keeping a running count of Gonzales’ elusive answers and holding the running tally up for all to see).

At the very least, Gonzales did recognize that some mistakes were made with how the firings were handled, although he said there wasn’t anything improper taking place.

Of course, there was really very little that Gonzales could have done yesterday to make things better for himself. But White House insiders suggest that he didn’t just tread water, but actually made things worse:

The sources, involved in administration discussions about Gonzales, told [CNN] White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux that two senior level White House aides who heard the testimony described Gonzales as “going down in flames,” “not doing himself any favors,” and “predictable.”

It remains to be seen what Bush will do about this, by my gut says that it’s simply a question of when he cuts and runs on Alberto, not if.

As usual, the best summary of yesterday’s hearing comes from Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick:

Those of us who arrived today thinking that Gonzales had some sort of brilliant master plan for winning over the judiciary committee are puzzled by the AG’s strategy. You can’t help but wonder what condition he was in last month before he started preparing full time. His face, for a sustained period of almost seven hours, is a perfect mask of bemused puzzlement and earnest seriousness. Clearly, the one thing he has practiced for two weeks is the face. But the rest of his tactics are dubious.

Posted by Seth on April 20, 2007 | Comments (2)