Gonzales rejects calls for resignation

WASHINGTON — For the second time in as many weeks, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday faced demands for his resignation over mismanagement at the Justice Department that resulted in misleading Congress.

No wonder he looked rattled.

The attorney general, speaking to reporters for nine minutes before stalking out of a hot, crowded room in his chambers, said he would not step down and vowed to fix what he called mistakes in how the Justice Department handled the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Documents released Tuesday detail a two-year campaign by the White House and the Justice Department to purge the prosecutors, whom Democrats say were targeted because of politics.

"I acknowledge that mistakes were made here," said Gonzales, who attempted a smile at the start of his remarks but quickly shed it amid questions of whether he would quit. "I accept that responsibility." He promised changes "so that the mistakes that occurred in this instance do not occur again in the future."

It was the second time in as many weeks that Gonzales was under fire. Last week, the attorney general and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller admitted the FBI improperly, and at times illegally, used the USA Patriot Act to secretly pry out personal information about Americans in terrorism investigations.

This week, Gonzales accepted the resignation of his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. The aide, along with then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, had begun discussing possible firings of U.S. attorneys in early 2005, according to e-mails released Tuesday.

Gonzales, himself a former White House counsel, has been friends with President Bush for years, going back to when he served as Bush's secretary of state in Texas. Bush retains full confidence in the attorney general, said spokesman Dan Bartlett, traveling with Bush in Mexico.

"He's a standup guy," Bartlett said of Gonzales.

As for the firings, Bartlett said White House officials had heard complaints from members of Congress regarding prosecutors and Bush had raised the subject during an October 2006 meeting with Gonzales. He described the exchange as "offhand" and said Bush did not name any specific prosecutors but did identify their states.

"This briefly came up and the president said, 'I've been hearing about this election fraud issue from members of Congress and want to be sure you're on top of it as well,"' Bartlett said.

Bartlett said Gonzales responded, "I know and we're looking at those issues."