[Infowarrior] - White House Seeking Gonzales Replacements

[Richard Forno]

 White House Seeking Gonzales Replacements

By: Mike Allen
March 19, 2007 06:31 PM EST
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3202.html

Republican officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun
seeking a possible successor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose
support among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has collapsed, according to
party sources familiar with the discussions.

Among the names floated Monday by administration officials are Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and White House anti-terrorism
coordinator Frances Townsend. Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson
is a White House prospect. So is former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson,
but sources were unsure whether he would want the job.

Republican sources also disclosed that it is now a virtual certainty that
Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, whose incomplete and inaccurate
congressional testimony about the prosecutors helped precipitate the crisis,
will also resign shortly. Officials were debating whether Gonzales and
McNulty should depart at the same time or whether McNulty should go a day or
two after Gonzales. Still known as "The Judge" for his service on the Texas
Supreme Court, Gonzales is one of the few remaining original Texans who came
to Washington with President Bush.

In a sign of Republican despair, GOP political strategists on Capitol Hill
said that it is too late for Gonzales' departure to head off a full-scale
Democratic investigation into the motives and timing behind the firing of
eight U.S. attorneys.

"Democrats smell blood in the water, and (Gonzales') resignation won't stop
them," said a well-connected Republican Senate aide. "And on our side, no
one's going to defend him. All we can do is warn Democrats against
overreaching."

A main reason Gonzales is finding few friends even among Republicans is that
he has long been regarded with suspicion by conservatives who have
questioned his ideological purity. In the past, these conservatives warned
the White House against nominating him for the Supreme Court. Now they're
using the controversy over the firing of eight federal prosecutors to take
out their pent-up frustrations with how he has handled his leadership at
Justice and how the White House has treated Congress.

Complaints range from his handling of immigration cases to his alleged
ceding of power in the department to career officials instead of movement
conservatives.

Without embracing Gonzales, Republicans pointed out that presidents are free
to replace U.S. attorneys at will. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) noted
on MSNBC that some of those who were replaced "haven't whined or complained
about it" and added, "I think that there's a lot of politics, but I don't
think it's just on one side."

But officials on Capitol Hill said that after the Justice Department failed
to turn over a batch of e-mails about the prosecutors on Friday as expected,
Republican senators became less likely to defend Gonzales or the White
House. They feared the delay signaled more damaging information was in the
pipeline.

"We have a crisis where there doesn't need to be one, and now Democrats have
an issue where they can open up the subpoena floodgates," said an
exasperated Republican aide. "Once these investigations start, there always
ends up being a lot of messy collateral damage."

Now the White House is girding for a confirmation battle at the same time it
is coping with Democrats' threats to subpoena aides to Bush, including
senior adviser Karl Rove.

Among the contenders to replace Gonzales, Chertoff is a former U.S. circuit
judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia. Before
that, he was confirmed by the Senate in 2003 as assistant attorney general
for the criminal division.

Under this scenario, Chertoff's successor at the Department of Homeland
Security might be Townsend, who now works in the White House as assistant to
the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. Townsend held
senior Justice Department posts under Attorney General Janet Reno during the
Clinton administration and is also a potential nominee for attorney general.

Republican sources said other widely respected Republican lawyers have been
considered for attorney general, although some of them may not be interested
in taking the job. These names include:

--Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, the "Law & Order" star who is now
considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

--Olson, who was Bush's first solicitor general and now is a partner at
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington.

--Larry Thompson, who has been general counsel of PepsiCo Inc. since leaving
his first-term job as deputy to Attorney General John Ashcroft.

--Retired federal judge Laurence H. Silberman, who was named by Bush to be
co-chairman of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United
States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction.

--George J. Terwilliger III, a former deputy attorney general and acting
attorney general who was a leader of Bush's legal team during the Florida
election recount.

Asked if Gonzales will stay, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said
Monday: "We hope so. He has the confidence of the president." But Snow also
revealed that the president had not talked to Gonzales since a conversation
the two had when Bush was in Mexico last week.