Mr. Gonzales Does Not Recall

If I told my boss "I don't recall" as many times as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did this morning in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I'd be fired, and rightly so. He's even taking heat from Republicans like Lindsey Graham (R-SC). True to form, however, Orrin Hatch (R-UT) gave him a big sloppy kiss, but what did you expect; and Sam Brownback (R-KS) went through the list of the fired prosecutors and let Mr. Gonzales put forth his reasons for their termination. Most of them sounded lame; nothing to the point of "Well, he didn't send me a birthday card," but pretty damn close.

He got testy with Chuck Schumer (not a good idea) and he tried to make it sound like Dick Durbin was knocking the entire Justice Department because he was criticising the A.G. Durbin's comeback was pretty good; it was along the lines of "that's like saying if I criticise the president's war policy, I'm knocking the soldiers, and that's bullshit" (obvious paraphrasing).

Mr. Gonzales thinks he can still be an effective leader of the Justice Department. I think it's safe to say that that is a minority opinion both in the hearing room and just about anywhere else.

The hearing resumes at 2:00 p.m. ET. Listen/watch on CPAN 3.