Last month Maegan predicted that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, mired in a scandal over the firing of several U.S. attorneys, would not leave his post without a fight. As evidenced in yesterday’s hearings before the Senate Judiciary Commitee, Gonzalez isn’t ready to give up. I listened to the hearing on NPR for about an hour yesterday, and it was incredible to me how easy it is to evade questions by saying “I don’t recall”. To grilling by senators over meetings that appear in the Attorney General’s calendar and at which Gonzales was present, he answered “I don’t recall.” Man, I wish it were that easy for regular people like me to get out of trouble by just faking amnesia.

…after hours of questions from the panel, an exasperated Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Gonzales didn’t meet that burden [of truth].

“You’ve answered ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I can’t recall’ to close to a hundred questions. You’re not familiar with much of the workings of your own department. And we still don’t have convincing explanations of the who, when and why, in regard to the firing of the majority of the eight U.S. attorneys,” said Schumer.

You know you are in deep caca when one of your fellow high-ranking conservative Republicans calls for you to quit. And that’s just what happened. I can’t say I care for Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma, but I love the way he phrased the proposal:

…saying the same personnel standards applied to the fired attorneys, and the same personnel decision should also apply to Gonzales.

“The communication was atrocious. It was inconsistent. It’s generous to say that there were misstatements. That’s a generous statement. And I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered,” said Coburn.

“And I believe that the best way to put this behind us is your resignation.”

Gonzales is dumb, in my opinion, because in addition to the “I don’t recalls” he became increasingly agitated throughout the hearings and often answered his Republican allies’ queries with defensive and exasperated tones. In the fight for my career and my reputation before an audience of millions, I’d be kissing major butt.

Meanwhile, the White House announced that it is “pleased” with Gonzales’ testimony and that the President stands by his man. A sharp contrast to the comment made by the chairman upon ending the session yesterday:

“I cannot think of any time that I’ve been more concerned and more concerned for the system of criminal justice in this country,” said Leahy. “So, with that, we stand adjourned.”

Via / ABC News

Image via AP