[Sosfbay-discuss] (AP) No. 3 Senate Dem urges Gonzales to quit

[JamBoi]

The Tipping Point approacheth!

Impeach for Peace!

Drew

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_on_go_co/congress_gonzales;_ylt=AhQBSPl2Dlmvbi7cbtUjI6GyFz4D

No. 3 Senate Dem urges Gonzales to quit
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Senate's No. 3 Democrat said Sunday that Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales should resign because he is putting politics
above the law. Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) cited
the FBI's illegal snooping into people's private lives and the Justice
Department's firing of federal prosecutors.

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Schumer, D-N.Y., said Gonzales repeatedly has shown more allegiance to
President Bush than to citizens' legal rights since taking his job in
early 2005.

He branded Gonzales, a former White House counsel, as one of the most
political attorneys general in recent history.

"Attorney General Gonzales is a nice man, but he either doesn't accept
or doesn't understand that he is no longer just the president's lawyer,
but has a higher obligation to the rule of law and the Constitution
even when the president should not want it to be so," Schumer said.

"And so this department has been so political that I think for the sake
of the nation, Attorney General Gonzales should step down," he said.

As vice chairman of the Democratic caucus, Schumer is No. 3 in the
Senate leadership.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., a member of the Democrat-controlled Judiciary
Committee, said Gonzales would be "better off" if he resigned.

"There is very little credibility in the Justice Department right now,"
Biden said. He cited what he said were abuses of power dating to
Gonzales' tenure as White House counsel in which he advocated
aggressive interrogations of suspected terrorists that pushed the
boundaries of the law.

"I think Gonzales has lost the confidence of the vast majority of the
American people," he said. "I think he's lost the confidence of the
Congress."

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), the top
Republican on the committee, said Gonzales' resignation was a "question
for the president and the attorney general."

"I do think there have been lots of problems," said Specter, who last
week suggested that a Gonzales tenure may have run its course. "Before
we come to conclusions, I think we need to know more facts."

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the attorney general had made
significant strides to protect national security, increase prosecutions
of sex offenders and immigration offenses and fight gang violence.

"The attorney general demonstrated decisive leadership by demanding a
new level of accountability to address systematic problems in oversight
over some of the FBI's national security tools," Roehrkasse said.

The lawmakers' comments come after a week in which the Justice
Department found itself on the defensive over the U.S. attorneys and
the FBI's misuse of a type of subpoena known as national security
letters.

On Friday, Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller acknowledged the
FBI had broken the law to secretly pry out personal information about
people in the U.S. as part of its pursuit of suspected terrorists and
spies.

The admission came after a blistering 126-page report by the Justice
Department's inspector general that found agents improperly obtained
telephone records and demanded sensitive data. The information was
obtained via security letters, which are special warrants issued
without judicial approval.

Under criticism by lawmakers, Gonzales also agreed to tighten the law
for replacing U.S. attorneys and to let Congress hear from senior
department officials with roles in the ousters.

Several U.S. attorneys allege they were unfairly dismissed without
explanation after they pursued corruption probes into Republicans or
declined to rush specific investigations into Democrats before last
November's congressional election. Gonzales and other officials have
denied the charges.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., said it is the
Bush administration's right to fire U.S. attorneys because they serve
at the will of the president. Still, he said, the Justice Department
was wrong to attack their reputations.

"I don't believe the attorney general will resign, but this whole
episode was unnecessarily poorly handled," Graham said.

Over the weekend, Bush pledged an end to the FBI lapses that caused the
illegal snooping but expressed confidence in the response by Mueller
and Gonzales. Mueller has accepted responsibility, and both have
pledged to fix problems.

Bush said that while the inspector general's report "justly made issue
of FBI shortfalls, (it) also made clear that these letters were
important to the security of the United States."

Lawmakers from both parties called the FBI abuses unacceptable. They
noted it was Congress that demanded the inspector general review the
program even as Justice Department officials were providing assurances
the government's surveillance programs were being run responsibly.

In coming hearings by the Judiciary Committee, senators plan to
consider whether to scale back some of the government's law enforcement
powers in light of the abuses.

Schumer and Specter were on "Face the Nation" on CBS; Biden and Graham
spoke on "Late Edition" on CNN.

___

On the Net:

Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov/

Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov/

___________________

JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com


 
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