April 24 (Bloomberg) — Republican critics of Alberto Gonzales, unmoved by President George W. Bush’s endorsement of his Justice Department leadership, said the attorney general faces an uphill fight to restore confidence among lawmakers.
Republican senators who have questioned Gonzales’s credibility over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys didn’t retreat today from their assessment of his testimony on April 19 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Yesterday, Bush said Gonzales’s appearance increased his confidence in the attorney general’s ability to run the Justice Department.
Gonzales was criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike at the Judiciary Committee hearing. Congress is investigating whether the dismissals were improperly motivated by political considerations, and today Democrats said they are considering a vote of no confidence in the attorney general.
“He has a lot of damage to repair,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters. “The big question is can he repair the damage. With some senators no, with some senators maybe.”
Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, a former U.S. attorney, said he isn’t sure Bush’s statement yesterday “represents the final decision” on Gonzales’s future in office. “I see difficulties out there” re-assembling a “first-rate staff” to run the agency, he said.
Bush and Gonzales “need to wrestle with that very seriously because the Department of Justice should come first,” said Sessions, who last week urged Gonzales to consider leaving office if he didn’t think he could serve effectively.
`Lack of Confidence’
Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, facing a tough re- election fight next year, said Gonzales’s testimony hasn’t “eased my concern about the lack of confidence in the organization and about the lack of confidence in his leadership. He is going to have to deal with that.”
The test for Gonzales is “can he effectively represent the president’s interest, can he effectively run the department?” Graham said. “Can he come here and get people to listen?”
While Graham said he isn’t questioning Gonzales’s competence, he criticized the attorney general for firing the U.S. attorneys without giving them a “chance to defend themselves” against charges they failed to perform well. That was “the most unsavory aspect of all of this,” Graham said. “If you sit down and think of a way to screw something up, you couldn’t have done much better.”
`Very Small Percentage’
A factor in Gonzales’s favor is that only a “very small percentage” of Republicans are calling for his resignation, he said.
One of those Republicans, New Hampshire Senator John Sununu, said he didn’t know of any members of Congress “who really believe he can fill that role.”
“I haven’t spoken to any to any member” of Congress “who feels the attorney general’s testimony was satisfactory,” said Sununu when asked about the president’s comment. Nor had he “heard from anyone that it increased their level of confidence” in Gonzales. Sununu is also up for re-election next year.
In another development, New York Senator Charles E. Schumer, the Democrat leading the Senate’s inquiry, said his party is weighing a vote of no confidence on Gonzales’s leadership.
Gonzales “has lost the confidence of key Democrats as well as key Republicans,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.
White House Testimony
Leahy said the panel will continue to press for testimony by Karl Rove, Bush’s top political adviser, and other presidential aides about their knowledge of the firings. The White House has refused to allow the aides to testify under oath or permit a transcript to be taken.
Leahy said that, should Gonzales resign, the panel wouldn’t hold a hearing to confirm a successor until the White House agrees to allow presidential aides to testify. Such testimony could help determine whether “the White House has interfered with prosecution,” he said.
Documents and testimony show that David C. Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, was fired after Bush, Rove and New Mexico Republicans complained to Gonzales that he didn’t pursue voter fraud investigations of Democrats.