The three leading Democratic presidential candidates all called today for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over the widening U.S. attorney scandal.
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards was first and most fiery in his denunciation of the president's former personal lawyer, calling stories confirming White House involvement in the firings of federal prosecutions "only the latest and most disturbing sign of the politicization of justice under President Bush.''
"From the abuse of investigative authority under the Patriot Act to the unconstitutional imprisonment of the Guantanamo Bay detainees and illegal torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Bagram Air Force Base,'' Edwards said in a statement, "this president has consistently shown contempt for the rule of law."
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales betrayed his public trust by playing politics when his job is to enforce and uphold the law. By violating that trust, he's done a great disservice to his office. If White House officials ordered this purge, he should have refused them. If they insisted, he should have resigned in protest. Attorney General Gonzales should certainly resign now.''
New York Senator Hillary Clinton was next to the party. On Good Morning America, she said, "The buck should stop somewhere, and the Attorney General -- who still seems to confuse his prior role as the president's personal attorney with his duty to the system of justice and to the entire country -- should resign."
Clinton cited evidence of "direct interference with the way U.S. attorneys are supposed to operate -- to be impartial. There's evidence of political interference and political pressure being put on them to engage in partisan political activities."
When asked, she said the Bush administration's firing of eight federal prosecutors last December was a different situation than when her husband's AG replaced every U.S. attorney immediately after he took office.
"When a new president comes in, a new president gets to clean house. It's not done on a case-by-case basis where you didn't do what some senator or member of Congress told you to do in terms of investigations into your opponents. It is 'let's start afresh' and every president has done that."
In his statement, Illinois Senator Barack Obama emphasized that he had voted against Gonzales's nomination because "he was concerned that he would advance the president's political agenda instead of doing what's best for the American people,'' - and apparently, he had been proven right.
"The latest revelations about the firing of federal prosecutors and the abuse of the Patriot Act underscore his concern. Senator Obama feels that Alberto Gonzales should be replaced by an Attorney General who will serve as the people's lawyer."
On the Republican side, Senator John McCain defended the embattled AG. Campaigning in Iowa today, McCain told the AP that Gonzales not only should not be forced out but should be given ample time to make his case.