Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Member Arlen Specter (Rep. - Pa.) told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week Sunday talk show that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has a “steep hill to climb” when he testifies before the Committee on Tuesday.

He had harsh criticsim of Gonzales’ pre-emptive strike by authoring an Op-Ed column in today’s Washington Post. Specter said that Gonzales was not being truthful about his involvement and knowledge of the U.S. Attorney firings:

“Those statements by [Attorney General Gonzales] are very conclusory. When you have a full column in the Washington Post, I think he would have better advised if he dealt with some facts.”

In a highlight of the ongoing controversy that will continue at Tuesday’s testimony, Sen. Specter took Gonzales to task for telling America in the WaPo op-ed that “he was not involved in discussions” leading to the U.S. Attorney firings.

“Gonzales will have to explain how he was not invovled in discussions when the e-mail shows that he was at meetings where these matters were discussed.”

Particularly troubling for Specter were the firings of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and Carol Lam, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. He said that the “Attorney General has to deal with” Igelsias’ termination, and be testify truthfully about “whether [Lam] was asked to resign because she was hot on the trail of Duke Cunninham and some former confederates.”

He will face the toughtest direct and cross-examination of his legal career when he testifies before a skeptical Congress on Tuesday. Specter warned that the Attorney General cannot avoid getting into the details of how federal prosecutors were removed from the Department of Justice. Gonzales “can’t have generalizations on Tuesday when he comes before our committee,” Specter warned.