Hagel: Gonzales has 'failed this country,' and 'should resign now'

Ron Brynaert

Published: Wednesday May 16, 2007 Print This Email This

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who has been flirting with the idea of running as an independent candidate for president, released a statement today calling on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign immediately for failing the country.

The American people deserve an Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer of our country, whose honesty and capability are beyond question," the Nebraska Senator wrote in a statement obtained by RAW STORY . "Attorney General Gonzales can no longer meet this standard."

Hagel added, "He has failed this country. He has lost the moral authority to lead. Comeys testimony yesterday brings to light the latest episode in a series of questionable actions by Attorney General Gonzales. It is another part of a pattern of flawed decision making by the Attorney General."

"America is a nation of laws," Hagel continued. "In the interest of the American people, Alberto Gonzales should resign now."

At the liberal blog Think Progress, former White House Privacy Counsel Peter Swire writes that the beleaguered Attorney General may face "new legal problems after yesterdays testimony of former Deputy Attorney General James Comey."

"In a 2006 hearing, when Sen. Chuck Schumer asked him about Comeys objections to the NSA wiretapping program, Gonzales denied there was any 'serious disagreement about the program,'" Swire notes.

Swire sees two possibilities; either "Comeys objections apply to the NSA warrantless wiretapping program that Gonzales was discussing," which would mean that "Gonzales quite likely made serious mis-statements under oath" or "[p]erhaps Comeys objections applied to a different domestic spying program."

The latter possibility would be "a big advantage for Gonzales  he wasnt lying under oath."

"But then we would have senior Justice officials confirming that other 'programs' exist for domestic spying, something the Administration has never previously stated," Swire concludes.



