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White House Seeking Gonzales Replacements
By Mike Allen
The Politico
Tuesday 20 March 2007
Republican officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun
seeking a possible successor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose support
among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has collapsed, according to party sources
familiar with the discussions.
Among the names floated Monday by administration officials are Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff and White House anti-terrorism coordinator Frances
Townsend. Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson is a White House prospect.
So is former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, but sources were unsure whether
he would want the job.
Republican sources also disclosed that it is now a virtual certainty that Deputy
Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, whose incomplete and inaccurate congressional
testimony about the prosecutors helped precipitate the crisis, will also resign
shortly. Officials were debating whether Gonzales and McNulty should depart
at the same time or whether McNulty should go a day or two after Gonzales. Still
known as "The Judge" for his service on the Texas Supreme Court, Gonzales
is one of the few remaining original Texans who came to Washington with President
Bush.
In a sign of Republican despair, GOP political strategists on Capitol Hill
said that it is too late for Gonzales' departure to head off a full-scale Democratic
investigation into the motives and timing behind the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
"Democrats smell blood in the water, and (Gonzales') resignation won't
stop them," said a well-connected Republican Senate aide. "And on
our side, no one's going to defend him. All we can do is warn Democrats against
overreaching."
A main reason Gonzales is finding few friends even among Republicans is that
he has long been regarded with suspicion by conservatives who have questioned
his ideological purity. In the past, these conservatives warned the White House
against nominating him for the Supreme Court. Now they're using the controversy
over the firing of eight federal prosecutors to take out their pent-up frustrations
with how he has handled his leadership at Justice and how the White House has
treated Congress.
Complaints range from his handling of immigration cases to his alleged ceding
of power in the department to career officials instead of movement conservatives.
Without embracing Gonzales, Republicans pointed out that presidents are free
to replace U.S. attorneys at will. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) noted
on MSNBC that some of those who were replaced "haven't whined or complained
about it" and added, "I think that there's a lot of politics, but
I don't think it's just on one side."
But officials on Capitol Hill said that after the Justice Department failed
to turn over a batch of e-mails about the prosecutors on Friday as expected,
Republican senators became less likely to defend Gonzales or the White House.
They feared the delay signaled more damaging information was in the pipeline.
"We have a crisis where there doesn't need to be one, and now Democrats
have an issue where they can open up the subpoena floodgates," said an
exasperated Republican aide. "Once these investigations start, there always
ends up being a lot of messy collateral damage."
Now the White House is girding for a confirmation battle at the same time it
is coping with Democrats' threats to subpoena aides to Bush, including senior
adviser Karl Rove.
Among the contenders to replace Gonzales, Chertoff is a former U.S. circuit
judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia. Before
that, he was confirmed by the Senate in 2003 as assistant attorney general for
the criminal division.
Under this scenario, Chertoff's successor at the Department of Homeland Security
might be Townsend, who now works in the White House as assistant to the president
for homeland security and counterterrorism. Townsend held senior Justice Department
posts under Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton administration and
is also a potential nominee for attorney general.
Republican sources said other widely respected Republican lawyers have been
considered for attorney general, although some of them may not be interested
in taking the job. These names include:
- Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, the "Law & Order" star
who is now considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
- Olson, who was Bush's first solicitor general and now is a partner at Gibson,
Dunn & Crutcher in Washington.
- Larry Thompson, who has been general counsel of PepsiCo Inc. since leaving
his first-term job as deputy to Attorney General John Ashcroft.
- Retired federal judge Laurence H. Silberman, who was named by Bush to be
co-chairman of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United
States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction.
- George J. Terwilliger III, a former deputy attorney general and acting attorney
general who was a leader of Bush's legal team during the Florida election recount.
Asked if Gonzales will stay, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Monday:
"We hope so. He has the confidence of the president." But Snow also
revealed that the president had not talked to Gonzales since a conversation
the two had when Bush was in Mexico last week.
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