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Gonzales remains in the spotlight

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Times Staff Writer

Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales faced more criticism Sunday as a senior Republican lawmaker said President Bush’s longtime aide had hurt the administration, the Justice Department and his own standing in his latest effort to explain the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Referring to Gonzales’ high-profile appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said: “The attorney general’s testimony was very, very damaging to his own credibility. It has been damaging to the administration, because without answers as to what really happened, there is a lot of speculation.”

Specter said accusations were being made that the Justice Department, in carrying out the firings, had acted as “the political arm of the White House.”

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Gonzales, he said, had failed to put those claims to rest in testimony where he frequently said he could not remember details of the process that led to the firings.

Specter, the ranking GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, stopped short of calling for Gonzales to resign. He said it was up to Gonzales and Bush to decide whether that was the right course.

Specter made his comments on “Fox News Sunday.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, chastised Bush on ABC’s “This Week” for letting “personal loyalty transcend service to the nation” by not forcing Gonzales to step down.

Gingrich reiterated his call, made earlier this month, for Gonzales to resign.

Gonzales has worked closely with Bush in various capacities since the president began his political career as governor of Texas in 1995.

Bush, in comments issued mostly through the White House media office, has stood by Gonzales. And the attorney general has given no indication that he intends to resign.

Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman, said Sunday in a statement to the Associated Press that Gonzales had “acknowledged and apologized for the mistakes that were made” in the firings and that “he intends to continue to work closely with the Congress to reassure them that he is taking all appropriate steps to rectify this unfortunate situation.”

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Democrats continued their efforts to force high-ranking White House officials -- including Bush’s chief political advisor, Karl Rove, and his former counsel, Harriet E. Miers -- to testify about the firings before Congress.

“I think there’s an imperative for the White House to help us interview people like Rove and Miers, because recent testimony, including Gonzales’, more and more indicates that they may be -- may be -- at the nexus of this,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Schumer, a Judiciary Committee member, said of Gonzales’ appearance before the panel: “All of America saw why so many of us had felt for so long that he shouldn’t be attorney general. He was not in command of the facts. He contradicted himself. And he doesn’t really appreciate the role of attorney general.”

Gonzales and other administration officials have said the eight U.S. attorneys -- out of 93 total across the country -- were replaced because their performances were inadequate, even though all had received positive job reviews.

Gonzales has conceded the terminations were poorly handled. Democrats have questioned whether they were dismissed because they were considered insufficiently loyal to the White House.

At least one commentator came to Gonzales’ defense Sunday.

David Rivkin, who was White House counsel under President George H.W. Bush, said it was unfair to say that Gonzales had not performed well in his testimony.

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He accused Democrats of a partisan witch hunt and said Republicans were angry about other issues.

“He is the key architect of [crucial legal decisions] this administration has made regarding ‘enemy combatants,’ ” the Patriot Act and wiretapping, Rivkin said.

“In a way, he’s caught in a perfect storm.”

nicole.gaouette@latimes.com

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