Speculation on possible replacements began immediately, with the focus on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a former Justice Department official. Also mentioned were Washington lawyer Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general, and Larry D. Thompson, general counsel of PepsiCo Inc. Both men served under former Atty. The White House seemed likely, but not certain, to turn to a Justice Department insider who could quickly make the transition and be effective in the 16 months left in the Bush presidency.
Other observers speculated that Bush might select a current or former member of Congress in an effort to mend relations between the department and Capitol Hill. He has battled accusations that he hired and fired prosecutors for political reasons, and misled Congress on a variety of subjects, including a warrantless electronic surveillance program launched after the Sept.
The resignation is effective Sept. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement will serve as acting attorney general until a successor is confirmed. Gonzales told Bush in a phone call Friday night that he intended to resign. The departure of Gonzales, a friend and confidant of Bush for more than a decade, marks the end of an era in which the president relied on a small circle of advisors who date back to his days as Texas governor.
Several officials said the attorney general called Bush at his ranch last Friday to offer his resignation. Bush did not attempt to dissuade him but accepted with reluctance, they said. The president then invited Gonzales and his wife to Sunday lunch. Recent Bush administration departures Gonzales was one of the longest-serving members of a group of Texans who came to Washington with Bush more than six years ago at the dawn of a new administration.
Presidential counselor Dan Bartlett and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel who was forced to withdraw her nomination for the Supreme Court, left earlier in the year. Gonzales, too, was once considered for the high court, but conservatives never warmed to the idea and he was passed over. His appointment as attorney general more than three years ago marked the latest in a series of increasingly high-profile positions that Bush entrusted him with.
A Harvard-educated lawyer, Gonzales signed on with Bush in the mid s. He also alluded to the possibility that the panel would examine whether Gonzales had lied to Congress, telling Gonzales at the July 24 hearing, "My suggestion to you is that you review your testimony very carefully. Schumer's request for a special prosecutor? No," Specter said. Schumer has made a practice of politicizing this matter.
Specter has been very critical of Gonzales, but he called Schumer's request "precipitous" and says it's "highly significant" that Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is not a signatory on Schumer's letter.
Everybody is riding off in different directions trying to get on a front page," Specter said. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow defended Gonzales' statements in a July 27 press briefing, saying, "I understand it's difficult to parse because what you have involved here are matters of classification — attempts to discuss those in an open congressional setting.
Snow also added that Mueller's statements to the House Judiciary Committee did not stand at odds with Gonzales' words. After the group of senators called for a perjury investigation, Democrats in the House of Representatives applied their own pressure to the attorney general. On July 31, a group of seven Democrats, lead by Washington Rep.
Jay Inslee, called for the House Judiciary Committee to consider an impeachment resolution. The move, viewed by many on Capitol Hill as a largely symbolic measure, which faced several hurdles. First, the House Judiciary Committee would have needed to advance the process to the full House for a vote.
If a majority of the House would have approved it, the next step would be a Senate trial. At the completion of that trial, the Senate would have had to approve the impeachment by a two-thirds majority. Gonzales replaced Ashcroft as attorney general Feb. Democrats had raised concerns about his standing on terror policy, based on a memo he wrote while working as White House counsel. Home United States U.
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