Missed the hearings?

Gonzales in a Nutshell

By Rick Horowitz

"That's an excellent question, senator. And I think it's important for the American people to understand that I would never remove a United States attorney from his or her job for the purpose of interfering with a particular investigation for political -- for partisan political purposes.

"As I've said before, the process was flawed in certain respects, and I take responsibility for that. I should have been more precise in my words, but I know in my heart that I did nothing improper.

"To my knowledge, I had only a limited involvement in the 'process' that resulted in the removal of the eight U.S. attorneys, who are all wonderful people who have served the country with distinction. I relied on my senior leadership team at the Justice Department to come up with a consensus decision on how to proceed, and I expected, as I recall, that they would do what was necessary to prepare their recommendations so that the 'process' could move forward.

"I don't recall when I first relied on the senior leadership team to move the 'process' forward to the consensus decision, or how I conveyed my expectations to them about the 'process,' but I recall a conversation with somebody -- it could have been Mr. Sampson, or possibly somebody else. And there might have been a meeting. And I don't recall discussing the progress of the 'process' at any specific points in time, but I'm not denying that I might have -- I just don't recall it. I've gone back and checked the records, senator, and I now understand that Mr. Sampson was my chief of staff at that time, and that I was Attorney General.

"I know in my own mind that my reasons for putting particular U.S. attorneys on the list -- not my reasons, but the reasons of my senior leadership team -- were good reasons. I don't frankly recall having a specific recollection of what those reasons were, but I can certainly get back to you on that if I start remembering.

"I also now understand that certain attorneys were added or removed from the list during the course of the 'process,' but I don't recall being specifically aware of that at the time. I had thousands of conversations during those years, senator, and in context, I would say it was vital to have those conversations -- some conversations, of course, were more vital than others -- and I now understand that I may have been part of those conversations while they were occurring.

"I also understand that there were conversations -- that I took part in conversations, or maybe they were visits -- with Karl Rove, where he conveyed to me concerns about certain U.S. attorneys. But I didn't think of that as part of the 'process,' so they weren't technically 'deliberations,' or even 'discussions.'

"And I now understand that there was a conversation between myself and the president, which was either before or after certain names -- I can't recall which names, specifically -- were put on the list, or maybe taken off the list. Something like that.

"But frankly, senator, I don't recall having a particular recollection about whether I was aware of that at the time, or whether I frankly don't remember forgetting it at some other time. It was probably one or the other, unless it wasn't.

"This isn't about Alberto Gonzales, senator, and when you criticize me for the 'process' that I have no recollection of going through when I apparently decided to fire these people, you're really criticizing the thousands of dedicated career professionals at the Department of Justice who had absolutely nothing to do with that decision.

"And that's why I should keep my job."

Posted 4/25/07. Get fresh commentary from syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz twice every week.

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

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