Gonzales has a tough day

Byron York:

Judging by his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, there are three questions about the U.S. attorneys mess that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wants answered: What did I know? When did I know it? And why did I fire those U.S. attorneys?

As the day dragged on, it became clear — painfully clear to anyone who supports Gonzales — that the attorney general didn’t know the answers. Much of the time, he explained, he didn’t really know much at all — he was just doing what his senior staff recommended he do.

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It wasn’t a terribly auspicious beginning, and it’s fair to say that things went downhill from there, despite Gonzales’ weeks of preparation. And it did not take long for it to become clear that Gonzales’ big problem was not with committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy and his fellow Democrats, who brought righteous indignation and little else to the hearing, but with Republicans, who brought simple, straightforward questions — questions Gonzales often failed to answer.

Under examination from Republican Sens. Sam Brownback, Lindsey Graham, Jeff Sessions, Tom Coburn and others, Gonzales maintained, in essence, that he did not know why he fired at least some of the eight dismissed U.S. attorneys. While Gonzales was able to give a reason for each firing, it appeared that in a number of cases, he had reconstructed the reason after the fact; he didn’t know why he fired the U.S. attorneys at the time, other than the dismissals were recommended by senior Justice Department staff.

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There is much more.

I think there are two different dynamics at work in this hearing. Leahy and Shumer are partisan hacks operating in bad faith. They know that Gonzales did nothing wrong by accepting staff recommendations to fire the eight attorneys, but they want to get as much political mileage out of it as possible. The Republicans on the other hand are embarrassed by Gonzales' weak response to the political attacks and don't want to forfeit political capital on defending him. They are also too clubby to attack the real malefactors Leahy and Shumer.

Gonzales did not impress the senators or the media, but his most important audience, the President, thought he did OK so he has probably dodged the bullet for now. It is unfortunate that his style is so soft. Being nice in the face of attacks from Leahy and Shumer signals weakness which they exploit like zealous enemies, which they are.