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    Senate Readies No-Confidence Vote in Bid to Oust Key Bush Aide
    Agence France-Presse

    Sunday 20 May 2007

    Washington - The US Senate was set to take the almost unprecedented move of a no-confidence vote on US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, ramping up pressure on President George W. Bush to sack his unpopular longtime aide.

    The vote - to be taken possibly as early as this week - would be only symbolic, but several Republicans were likely to support the measure, including one key lawmaker who spoke Sunday of "the likelihood of a very substantial vote of no-confidence" against Gonzales.

    "You already have six Republicans calling for his resignation," said Republican Senator Arlen Specter on CBS television Sunday, adding that the desire to avoid a political spectacle may convince the attorney general to resign.

    "I have a sense ... that before the vote is taken, that attorney general Gonzales may step down," he said.

    "Votes of no confidence are very rare," said Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that that last no-confidence vote came more than a century ago.

    "I think that if and when he sees that coming, that he would prefer to avoid that kind of an historical black mark," he said.

    Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, a key Gonzales opponent, rejected criticism that the no-confidence vote amounted to a political stunt, and said it reflected the will of the US public, as well as that of many lawmakers from both parties.

    "The only person who thinks the attorney general should remain the attorney general is the president," he told Fox News television Sunday.

    And US Senator Dianne Feinstein, criticized Gonzales' "weak" overall performance as the top US law enforcement officer.

    "His concept of attorney general ... is that he wears two hats: one to serve the president; the other to serve the people," the California Democrat said.

    "I don't think the attorney general can wear two hats."

    Gonzales's troubles began in February because of his firings last year of eight federal prosecutors, allegedly for partisan political reasons, and revelations that as many as 30 had been considered for dismissal.

    The sackings, while legal, had the appearance of a political purge, which e-mail messages hinted had been orchestrated by the White House.

    Gonzales has admitted no wrong-doing and enjoys unwavering support from Bush.

    As it appeared Gonzales might weather that controversy, a former number-two man at the Justice Department testified before the Senate last week that Gonzales in March 2004 tried to compel hospitalized then-attorney general John Ashcroft to authorize a covert program to eavesdrop on Americans without a judicial warrant.

    The operation, disclosed in 2005, appears to have been the first anti-terrorist measure aimed directly at US citizens, and is therefore the among the most controversial put in place during the George W. Bush administration.

    The revelation has reignited the firestorm about Gonzales's zealous loyalty to the president, even in his capacity as attorney general, a difficult job in that it requires independent legal judgment.

    In his prior job as White House council, Gonzales found legal justifications for some of Bush's most controversial policies, when it came to prisoner interrogations and surveillance.

    "Long before he moved from the White House to the Justice Department, Gonzales was a serial enabler of legal shortcuts in the war on terror," The Los Angeles Times newspaper said Friday in an editorial.

    Comey testified that Ashcroft refused to sign the authorization and that that he, Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller threatened to resign unless substantive changes were made in the program - changes which were later put in place by the Bush administration.

    Asked last week about the episode, Bush declined to confirm or deny it, and the White House has strongly reaffirmed its support for Gonzales.

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    Getting in Deeper...
    By Chitra Ragavan
    US News & World Report

    Sunday 20 May 2007

Another week reveals more lapses in judgment by the Bush team.

    For months, congressional Democrats have tried to force embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales out of his job by using what one congressional source called "conventional weapons"-incriminating E-mails, damaging memorandums, and other documents related to the controversial firings of nine U.S. attorneys. And for months, against the unwavering support of President George W. Bush, they have failed. But last week, the committee investigating the firings detonated what the same source called a "thermonuclear device." And in doing so, they have put Gonzales's future in serious doubt.

    Bedside drama. The bomb in question is James Comey, a highly regarded former deputy attorney general who dramatically described Gonzales's dark role in reauthorizing the National Security Agency's secret wiretap program. In riveting congressional testimony last week, Comey disclosed that in March 2004, when then Attorney General John Ashcroft lay deathly ill in a hospital bed, Gonzales-then White House counsel-and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card went to the hospital to persuade the ailing Ashcroft to sign off on the program. Comey, serving as acting AG, had refused to sign a presidential order reauthorizing the wiretapping program because he questioned its legality. Alerted to the others' visit, Comey raced to the hospital himself, getting there with just minutes to spare. "I remember waiting; it wasn't long, but it felt like forever," Comey told U.S. News in an exclusive interview. "And I was thinking, 'What am I going to do? What if they get him to sign something? Do I intervene physically? What do I do?'"

    Ashcroft, although barely conscious, found the strength to support him, Comey testified. But Bush continued the program without any certification. So Comey said he, Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and senior Justice staffers all prepared to resign, prompting Bush to back Comey's demand for changes to the program. "If the thinking in the administration was that Gonzales can ride it out," says Steven Dettelbach, a former federal prosecutor and former Democratic staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, "this is Exhibit A that it could get worse."

    Indeed, congressional sources tell U.S. News that Democrats will ask the Texas Bar Association to determine whether Gonzales violated his code of professional responsibility or broke laws by bringing up the NSA program in the hospital in front of Ashcroft's wife, who lacks security clearances. "I am not going to speculate on discussions that may or may not have taken place," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd responded, "much less attempt to render a legal judgment on any such discussions."

    What makes the latest testimony so compelling is that it comes from Comey, a former mob and white-collar-crime prosecutor with impeccable credentials and unimpeachable credibility. Not insignificantly, he is also a Republican and a Bush appointee. "He's got very significant conservative stripes," says Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The fact that he was so concerned about the legality of the NSA program should send a message to Congress."

    Bulldog. This is hardly the first time that Comey, now senior vice president and general counsel of Lockheed Martin, has taken on the White House. He has repeatedly disputed Gonzales's assertions that the fired U.S. attorneys had performance problems. In 2003, he named a close friend, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, as a special counsel to investigate the CIA-Valerie Plame leak affair-a case that resulted in the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. And in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Comey challenged Cheney on what he and his advisers believed was the shaky legality of memorandums that authorized aggressive interrogations and other "war on terror" policies.

    Such actions have made Comey something of a bete noire in the Bush administration-even though Comey believes that Bush respected him and wanted him to do the right thing. Indeed, now some Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, say they will even back Comey for attorney general if Gonzales resigns. "The only thing worse than being vilified by the left," says Comey with a laugh, "is being idolized by the left."

    Likable and 6 foot 8, the 46-year-old Comey invariably invites comparisons to James Stewart in his portrayal of an idealistic congressman in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. A graduate of William and Mary and the University of Chicago law school, Comey was beloved by prosecutors for his legal acumen and his easy management style, which he describes as obtaining results by eliciting equal parts affection and guilt. He continually urged prosecutors to protect their integrity, the credibility that the court instantly conferred on them, he says, simply by virtue of their office. Comey has likened that goodwill to a vast reservoir: It takes enormous time and effort to fill, but it can be irreparably damaged with just "one hole in the dam."

    Comey told U.S. News he was prepared to testify about the Ashcroft incident for more than three years but never did. Why? "Nobody ever asked," he said. "I've never been in a forum where I was obligated to answer the question. Short of that, it was not something I was going to volunteer."

    His actions at the hospital, he testified, earned him Card's wrath. Soon after Gonzales became attorney general, his then chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, told Comey that Gonzales's "vision" was to merge the deputy's office with Gonzales's own office. That meant that Comey would have lost some of his autonomy, becoming less of a leader and more of a senior staff member. A source close to Sampson says he merely wanted Gonzales and Comey to operate as a "seamless leadership team," with "harmony rather than conflict," and never meant to "degrade the status or authority" of the deputy. Comey didn't buy it. "You may want to try that with the next deputy attorney general," Comey is said to have responded to Sampson. "But it's not going to work with me."

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    This story appears in the May 28, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.