Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "Nothing to Hide..."

Amid all the scandal, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is saying "I have nothing to hide, and I am committed to assuring the Congress and the American public that nothing improper occurred here."

This came during a 25 page Senate testimony released Sunday before his scheduled meeting with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The Senate hearing follows weeks and weeks of controversy about the firing of 8 U.S. Attorneys. The Bush Administration has been under heavy scrutiny for this controversy and Gonzales has been at the forefront.

Many think Gonzales will be out of a job sooner than later. Two high ranking Republican, Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), questioned his credibility as Attorney General and wondered about his ever-shifting position on the firings.

"The No. 1 question is....is he capable of administering the Department of Justice....did he have enough hands on to know what's happening?" said Arlen Specter, "Can he explain why these individuals were asked to resign and justify the reasons for doing so?"

This has seemed to be the question haunting Gonzales of late. He has had to undergo a lot of scrutiny as to why these 8 appointed United States Attorneys were fired. He has changed the details of the story several times throughout this scandal and Republicans and Democrats alike are outraged.

Lindsay Graham said, "He needs to explain what he did and why he did it. There are three or four different versions of his role in this, and he needs to bring clarity to what he did and why he did it."

He has claimed a fuzzy memory about the firings. This alibi has only made things worse as people wonder how a man with the position of Attorney General can so easily forget firing 8 U.S. Attorneys. Many have pegged this as his way of claiming ignorance in order to protect himself from further questioning. In his Senate hearing, he put the blame Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and other aides. He said, "It was to be a group of officials, including the deputy attorney general, who were much more knowledgeable than I about the performance of each U.S. attorney.....During those updates, to my knowledge, I did not make decisions about who should or should not be asked to resign."

Further claims of ignorance came when he said it would be hard to answer all the lawmaker's questions because he did not review the transcripts of the closed- door meeting his staff had with congressional investigators.

"As a result, I may be somewhat limited when it comes to providing you with all of the facts that you may desire."

President Bush and Vice President Cheney are still backing Attorney General Gonzales. Cheney said he had complete faith in Gonzales and the choices he makes.

Gonzales was scheduled to have his Senate hearing on Tuesday but because of the Virginia Tech Massacre it has been moved back to Thursday.

Sources: Associated Press, Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors_27