"I don't recall"

From Think Progress:

What emerged from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday was a picture of an inept manager who was, at best, unaware of major personnel decisions being made within his department, and at worst, complicit in the Bush administration's plan to politicize the ranks of the U.S. attorneys. He uttered the phrase "'I don't recall' and its variants ('I have no recollection,' 'I have no memory') 64 times," claiming, "I don't have anything to hide." Yet at the same time, Gonzales asked the Senate to trust him: "I believe I can continue to be effective as the attorney general of the United States." Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) wondered, "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?" After a full day of testimony, what is clear is that the Attorney General has repeatedly lied to the American public. Gonzales yesterday promised, "The moment I believe I can no longer be effective I will resign as attorney general." President Bill Clinton told Larry King last night on CNN, "The best thing he could do for this president that he served so loyally is to step aside."

LIES AND INCONSISTENCIES: Throughout this scandal, Gonzales has simultaneously said that he is "ultimately accountable and responsible for what happens within the department," while at the same time shirking responsibility: "I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on." Yet documents show that Gonzales was involved and approved plans to fire several of the prosecutors in an hour-long meeting on Nov. 27. Earlier in the month, Gonzales former chief of staff Kyle Sampson told congressional investigators that the Attorney General was "inaccurate," or "at least not complete" in asserting that he had no role in the prosecutor purge deliberations. Yesterday, Gonzales finally conceded the obvious -- that he was involved -- but still failed to fully explain why at least eight highly-respected U.S. attorneys were fired. Under questioning from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), he also admitted that he "made these decisions without ever looking at the performance reports" of the U.S. attorneys. He said that at the time he approved the firings, he didn't even know why two of the prosecutors -- Daniel Bogden of Nevada and Margaret Chiara of Michigan -- were on the list. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called Gonzales's explanations "a stretch," adding that he thought the prosecutors were fired because of personality conflicts and "made up reasons."

RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK: Much of this controversy centers around whether the Bush administration intended to install conservative loyalists as U.S. attorneys, taking advantage of a little-noticed provision slipped into the Patriot Act in 2005, which allows the Attorney General to name "interim" prosecutors who can serve indefinitely without Senate approval. On Jan. 18, Gonzales assured the Senate Judiciary Committee, "I am fully committed...to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in this country, we will have a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed United States attorney." This statement has turned out to be untrue. In early December, Gonzales allowed Sampson to go forward with a plan to avoid Senate input on the nomination of Karl Rove-protege Tim Griffin as U.S. attorney in Arkansas. But then in a meeting on Dec. 15, Gonzales promised Sen. Mark Pryor (R-AR) that he would "look for someone else" instead of Griffin, in response to Pryor's objections. Despite this promise, Sampson then sent out an e-mail four days later to carry out the Griffin plan" "We should gum this to death. [A]sk the senators to give Tim a chance...then we can tell them we'll look for other candidates, ask them for recommendations, evaluate the recommendations, interview their candidates, and otherwise run out the clock." Pryor said "he still believes the attorney general lied to him by stating that he intended to seek Senate confirmation for Griffin." BLAMING CAREER PROFESSIONALS: "The Department of Justice should never be reduced to another political arm of the White House -- this White House or any White House," Leahy said yesterday. Yet under Gonzales, this characterization is exactly what the Justice Department has become. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) yesterday noted that during the Clinton administration, there were just four people -- the president, the vice president, the deputy White House counsel and the White House counsel -- who could participate in these kind of discussions with the Justice Department "regarding pending criminal investigations and criminal cases." But under the Bush administration, there are 417 White House officials eligible to have such discussions, blurring the line between justice and politics. Gonzales tried to push some of the blame on to the career professionals in the Justice Department, stating, "And all the credit, everything that we do, the credit goes to them. And so, when there are attacks against the department, you're attacking the career professionals." The career professionals have nothing to do with the scandals Gonzales and the political appointees at the Justice Department have created. In 2005, Bush's political appointees reversed the career staff's recommendations to challenge a Georgia photo-ID law that a federal judge later likened to a "modern-day poll tax." More recently, a "Group of Concerned Justice Department Employees" wrote an anonymous letter revealing that "the non-political ranks of Justice employees...are consistently and methodically being eroded by partisan politics."

VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE: After the hearing yesterday, the White House issued a statement saying that the President was "pleased with the Attorney General's testimony." He was the only one who came away pleased though. "[S]everal very loyal Republicans made it clear to CNN that they were really dripping with disappointment." Two senior White House aides also characterized Gonzales's testimony to CNN as "going down in flames. ... One prominent Republican describing watching his testimony as 'clubbing a baby seal.'" Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) called on Gonzales to resign: "I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered, and I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation." Sixty-three percent of the American public believes Gonzales is lying about his role in the prosecutor purge and 52 percent believe he needs to step down.

To read the very best blog post I've read on this issue so far, go HERE.