Schumer: Gonzales' Innocence Not Relevant to Probe
Satire from ScrappleFace
By Scott Ott on Law
(2007-04-16) — As U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales prepares to face the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, said Mr. Gonzales' guilt or innocence in the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys is not relevant to Tuesday’s hearing.
The New York senator’s remarks follow a Washington Post Op-Ed by Mr. Gonzales in which he claimed that “nothing improper” happened in the dismissal of the U.S. Attorneys.
However, Sen. Schumer, a member of the committee, said the attorney general’s appearance before the panel “does not hinge on whether anyone in the justice department did something unethical or illegal.”
“Gonazales continues to demonstrate his ignorance of how government works,” said Mr. Schumer. “Since when do Congressional hearings have anything to do with actual crimes or, for that matter, questions that lawmakers need to have answered?”
“The purpose of such hearings,” Sen. Schumer said, “is to allow Senators to make speeches, and to determine how bad the Bush administration might look if some of its top officials were forced to testify in a setting that looks like some kind of trial. The fact that Gonzales thinks we’re concerned about improper actions just demonstrates why he’s too naive to be the head of the justice department, and why he should resign…which, of course, is another purpose of the hearings.”
Mr. Gonzales also claimed in the Washington Post editorial that he has “nothing to hide.”
However, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, said the fact that the attorney general used the word “hide” will raise suspicions and spark more intense speeches by senators that will generate news headlines that could increase the drumbeat to hasten the departure of the attorney general.
“If it becomes apparent that Gonzales might have fired the U.S. attorneys for political reasons,” said Mr. Specter, “then the right thing for the president to do would be to fire Gonzales to protect the Republican party.”
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