March 11, 2007
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Senate's No. 3 Democrat said Sunday that
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign because he
is putting politics above the law. Sen. Charles Schumer (news,
bio, voting record) cited the FBI's illegal snooping into people's
private lives and the Justice Department's firing of federal
prosecutors.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said Gonzales repeatedly has shown more allegiance
to President Bush than to citizens' legal rights since taking
his job in early 2005.
He branded Gonzales, a former White House counsel, as one
of the most political attorneys general in recent history.
"Attorney General Gonzales is a nice man, but he either
doesn't accept or doesn't understand that he is no longer just
the president's lawyer, but has a higher obligation to the
rule of law and the Constitution even when the president should
not want it to be so," Schumer said.
"And so this department has been so political that I
think for the sake of the nation, Attorney General Gonzales
should step down," he said.
As vice chairman of the Democratic caucus, Schumer is No.
3 in the Senate leadership.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., a member of the Democrat-controlled
Judiciary Committee, said Gonzales would be "better off" if
he resigned.
"There is very little credibility in the Justice Department
right now," Biden said. He cited what he said were abuses
of power dating to Gonzales' tenure as White House counsel
in which he advocated aggressive interrogations of suspected
terrorists that pushed the boundaries of the law.
"I think Gonzales has lost the confidence of the vast
majority of the American people," he said. "I think
he's lost the confidence of the Congress."
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record),
the top Republican on the committee, said Gonzales' resignation
was a "question for the president and the attorney general."
"I do think there have been lots of problems," said
Specter, who last week suggested that a Gonzales tenure may
have run its course. "Before we come to conclusions, I
think we need to know more facts."
Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the attorney general
had made significant strides to protect national security,
increase prosecutions of sex offenders and immigration offenses
and fight gang violence.
"The attorney general demonstrated decisive leadership
by demanding a new level of accountability to address systematic
problems in oversight over some of the FBI's national security
tools," Roehrkasse said.
The lawmakers' comments come after a week in which the Justice
Department found itself on the defensive over the U.S. attorneys
and the FBI's misuse of a type of subpoena known as national
security letters.
On Friday, Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller acknowledged
the FBI had broken the law to secretly pry out personal information
about people in the U.S. as part of its pursuit of suspected
terrorists and spies.
The admission came after a blistering 126-page report by the
Justice Department's inspector general that found agents improperly
obtained telephone records and demanded sensitive data. The
information was obtained via security letters, which are special
warrants issued without judicial approval.
Under criticism by lawmakers, Gonzales also agreed to tighten
the law for replacing U.S. attorneys and to let Congress hear
from senior department officials with roles in the ousters.
Several U.S. attorneys allege they were unfairly dismissed
without explanation after they pursued corruption probes into
Republicans or declined to rush specific investigations into
Democrats before last November's congressional election. Gonzales
and other officials have denied the charges.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., said
it is the Bush administration's right to fire U.S. attorneys
because they serve at the will of the president. Still, he
said, the Justice Department was wrong to attack their reputations.
"I don't believe the attorney general will resign, but
this whole episode was unnecessarily poorly handled," Graham
said.
Over the weekend, Bush pledged an end to the FBI lapses that
caused the illegal snooping but expressed confidence in the
response by Mueller and Gonzales. Mueller has accepted responsibility,
and both have pledged to fix problems.
Bush said that while the inspector general's report "justly
made issue of FBI shortfalls, (it) also made clear that these
letters were important to the security of the United States."
Lawmakers from both parties called the FBI abuses unacceptable.
They noted it was Congress that demanded the inspector general
review the program even as Justice Department officials were
providing assurances the government's surveillance programs
were being run responsibly.
In coming hearings by the Judiciary Committee, senators plan
to consider whether to scale back some of the government's
law enforcement powers in light of the abuses.
Schumer and Specter were on "Face the Nation" on
CBS; Biden and Graham spoke on "Late Edition" on
CNN.
___
On the Net:
Justice Department
Senate Judiciary Committee
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