May 17, 2007
Dems Plan No-Confidence Vote On Gonzales
The tipping point in the attorneys firing scandal may be near, as Senate Democrats this afternoon announced they would be holding a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
"Whoever is the attorney general of the United States is the chief law enforcement officer for the people of the United States," Sen. Dianne Feinstein said, appearing in a joint press conference with Sen. Charles Schumer. "I have lost confidence in the independence of Attorney General Gonzales from the White House."
This week has been a particularly bad week for Gonzales and the White House on the prosecutor firings. On Tuesday, lawmakers heard new details of a 2004 encounter Gonzales, then White House counsel, had with his predecessor, Attorney General John Ashcroft. Gonzales, along with the chief of staff at the time, Andrew Card, arrived at the hospital in which Ashcroft was recovering from gall bladder surgery and acute pancreatitis on President Bush's orders, in order to pressure the ailing attorney general to sign off on a domestic surveillance program the Justice Department opposed.
Only, Ashcroft wasn't the attorney general at the time -- then Deputy Attorney General James Comey was acting in his place.
Comey, whose resistance to the Bush administration's surveillance policies has become well known, testified that Gonzales and Card refused to acknowledge his presence in the hospital room, and that Card angrily summoned him to the White House. Comey said he only agreed to meet with Card at the White House after insisting on bringing then-Solicitor General Ted Olson as a witness.
The dramatic new details of another incident in which the Bush administration seemed to flaunt the law for political reasons appear to be the final straw for even Republicans in Congress. Earlier today, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, said he expected Gonzales would eventually be pushed out because of the DOJ scandals.
Yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel, another prominent Republican, said Gonzales should resign. While Bush has refused to ask Gonzales to step down, it's becoming increasingly difficult to see how else he can make the scandal go away.
Earlier, at a press conference alongside British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush refused to provide extra details on Gonzales and Card's visit to Ashcroft, but defended the surveillance program that Ashcroft and Comey had determined to be illegal as "an essential part of protecting this country."
Comey and Ashcroft eventually signed off on the program after the White House made some changes, but the removed provisions remain classified.
A congressional vote of no-confidence in the attorney general would have no impact on his job status, but will make it that much more difficult for the president to keep Gonzales in place.
"All of this has a ripple effect," Feinstein said, after also criticizing congressional hearings in which Gonzales repeatedly said he "did not recall" details of the prosecutor firings. "I think the time has come for the Senate to express its will, and that will is to say we lack confidence in the attorney general."
Posted at 2:26 PM
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Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, President Bush
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