Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had hoped to convince members of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that he did “nothing improper.”  He failed miserably.

Republican and Democratic Senators pounded Gonzlaes with question after question — most of which he failed to answer credibly.

A month ago, this law blog wrote that Gonzales was “caught in a pack of lies” for his contradictory statements about what he knew about the process of firing U.S. Attorneys, and when he knew it.

Yesterday, it became clear that (with the exception of Sen. Orin Hatch), nearly all members of the Committee did not believe he was testifying truthfully under oath.

He did not recollect details of an hour-long November 27, 2006 meeting in the Attorney General’s own conference room at the Justice Department with senior aides to discuss the firing and replacement of U.S. Attorneys.

He engaged of a pattern of trying to deflect questions, rather than answer them. And most members of the Committee called for his resignation, the most direct and forceful of these calls coming from GOP Senator Coburn.

Gonzales could be out of the Justice Department before the end of the month.