Gonzales can't sway skeptical senators; Republican Coburn urges resignation

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confronted a fresh Republican call for his resignation Thursday as he struggled to survive a withering, bipartisan Senate attack on his credibility in the case of eight fired prosecutors.

"The best way to put this behind us is your resignation," Sen. Tom Coburn bluntly told Gonzales — one GOP conservative to another — at a daylong Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Gonzales disagreed and told the Oklahoma senator he didn't know that his departure would put the controversy to rest. "I am committed to working with you in trying to restore the faith and confidence you need to work with me," he said.

The exchange punctuated a long day in the witness chair for the attorney general, who doggedly advanced a careful, lawyerly defense of the dismissals of the federal prosecutors. He readily admitted mistakes, yet told lawmakers he had "never sought to deceive them," and added he would make the same firings decision again.

"At the end of the day I know I did not do anything improper," he said.

Gonzales sat alone at the witness table in a crowded room for the widely anticipated hearing. There was no doubt about the stakes for a member of President Bush's inner circle, and support from fellow Republicans was critical to his attempt to hold his job.

"The moment I believe I can no longer be effective I will resign as attorney general," Gonzales said after making it clear he did not believe it had come to that.

The hearing was drawing to a close on Capitol Hill when Bush spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters at the White House, "The attorney general has the confidence of the president. ... The attorney general acted to replace the U.S. attorneys and there was nothing improper."

Struggling to save his credibility and perhaps his job, Gonzales testified scores of times that he could not recall events he was asked about.

After a long morning in the witness chair, he returned to face fresh Republican challenges to his credibility. "Why is your story changing?" asked Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, noting that the attorney general was now accepting responsibility for the firings after initially saying he had played only a minor role.

In response, Gonzales replied that his earlier answers had been "overbroad," the result of inadequate preparation. The process that led to the firings "should have been more rigorous," he added, although he repeatedly defended the decisions themselves.