Posted on 04/25/2007 10:25:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told The Politico that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign, becoming the most prominent Republican to desert the White House over the bungled firing of U.S. attorneys.
The call from McCain, one of the leading Republican candidates for the White House, adds to excruciating pressure on President Bush, who has said he continues to support his beleaguered attorney general.
The senator disclosed his view as his Straight Talk Express luxury bus rumbled away from the second stop on his announcement tour, a rally held in the pouring rain in a park in New Hampshire’s largest city.
“Out of loyalty to the president, he should obviously step down,” McCain said. “He’s not serving the president well. I reached that conclusion a long time ago. I just haven’t been asked.”
Senators of both parties expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the attorney general’s appearance last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He was trying to explain apparent conflicts between e-mail records of his involvement in the matter and his public assertion that politics were not involved and that he had not participated in meetings on the matter.
The Gonzales drama has become a daily drain on the president and his top officials, who are frequently asked about the attorney general, and have seen their already rocky relations with Capitol Hill deteriorate further.
On Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the panel’s topic Republican, wrote to Gonzales seeking more information.
“By some counts you failed to answer more than 100 questions, by other counts more than 70, but the most conservative count had you failing to provide answers well over 60 times,” the blistering letter says.
The senators asked him to supplement his testimony by providing “the answers to the questions you could not recall.”
Gonzales has been a member of Bush’s inner circle for a dozen years, serving first as general counsel in the Texas governor’s office.
He was a justice on the Supreme Court of Texas from 1997 to 1999, then came to Washington with Bush as the first White House counsel. He became the nation’s 80th attorney general in February 2005.
McCain, who is not on the Judiciary Committee, said he has not talked to the attorney general, and said Gonzales has not tried to talk to him.
“Recently, second-term presidents have had difficulties,” McCain said. “I don’t know exactly why that is.
"But the Justice Department is the last institution of government where there should be any politicization of any kind. We’re talking about the administration of Justice.
"That’s why I think that the situation has been very frustrating to a lot of people. But I also think it’s probably harmed the president. That’s why I think the attorney general would be serving the man he admires and has been friends with for many, many years by stepping down.”
Asked why the situation had been allowed to drag on so long, McCain said: “I really don’t know. You see these things happen and it’s pretty easy for you to figure out.” But he added that it can be less clear “inside the bubble.”
McCain also said ruefully that he had no insight into communication among the president’s inner circle. “As you know,” he said with a mischievous smile, “I’m not the most frequent visitor to the White House.”
That's because nobody cares, John. Time for retirement.
McCain=loser #2. (Rudy is Loser #1) The more those two open their mouths, the less likely I’d vote for them...except under duress.
I worry for John with the one one square directive,what with what he is slingin and from where
Where’s Fred?
Methinks McCain is about finished.
That hammering sound you hear is casket construction.
Newt Gingrich also called for Gonzalez to resign on Great tonight. As has conservative hero Tom Coburn.
But don’t let this stop anyone from turning this into a bash McCain thread! Some people here just love to bash the 2008 candidates be it Rudy, Romney, or McCain! And all they are doing is ensuring an Obama or Clinton presidency.
Gonzo’s in way over his head. He’s not qualified for the job. His testimony was a grotesque embarrassment.
As far as McCain is concerned, well, blind squirrels find nuts too, now and then.
i knew something was wrong back in the late 1990’s
when the nyt sunday magazine had a
frontpage photo of john mccain.
johnny was the new pubbie media darling.
John, you were irrelevant in 2000 and you are even more irrelevant now.
Newt has also given a Green thumbs up to Al Gore’s global warming scam.
Your party is revealing itself to be a trojan horse. Come election season, there will be no “date for the prom”.
I don’t know if it is backroom deals that brought us here (one party rule), RINOs, power over beliefs, or what.
>>Why doesn’t this suprise me?<<
Well, I’m shocked. Especially the McCain would say Gonzales should resign to avoid politicizing the justice Department on the very day McCain announces for President.
Why, its almost as if Senator McCain is doing the very thing he is complaining about. That can’t be true!
:)
Know what? If this was an Attorney General who was smart, effective and forthright in defending his values and his President, I’d agree. But, man, this guy is a wet sponge.
“Gonzo’s in way over his head. He’s not qualified for the job. His testimony was a grotesque embarrassment.”
I agree. After watching that I wouldn’t trust him to handle a parking ticket.
Gonzales is a pathetic embarrassment and the Bush Justice Department is corrupt to the core, but Dubya apparently wants it that way. Whatever. Gonzales should hang in there just to make the rats look ineffective.
Good point. He's no Janet Reno (or Patrick Fitzgeral in '08?).
Now that McCain has said it, Gonzales is a goner!
Why hasn’t McInsane demanded the resignation of a few traitors in the Congress?
Durbin, Kerry, Levin, Reid, Murtha, Moran, etc, etc,.....
True to form — it’s easier to throw rocks a dumb ass like Gonzalez...
Semper Fi
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