O ne of Capitol Hill?s oldest institutions ? the formal congressional hearing ? is also one of its most abused and, usually, most useless. Members of both parties take turns making self-serving speeches that seldom sway their opponents.
When there is a particular witness in the chair, as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was the other day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he can usually expect to be attacked relentlessly by representatives of the other party, and to be defended as a brother by those of his own.
If the witness is a Republican like Gonzales, he has good reason to anticipate being asked by the Democratic members when he stopped beating his wife, and tossed softball pitches by the collaborating Republicans.
That?s why Gonzales? five-hour appearance was a breath of fresh air for longtime Congress-watchers. You could hardly tell the Republicans from the Democrats without a scorecard, as the embattled attorney general underwent the equivalent of a bipartisan star-chamber grilling from incredulous senators.
It was no surprise that the committee chairman, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, expressed amazement at Gonzales? failure to recall the details and timing of various meetings about the firing of eight U.S Attorneys that brought him before the committee in a long-waited confrontation. Leahy had been one of the first and most outspoken challengers of his memory.
Nor was it particularly astounding that the witness?s fellow Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter, would have some choice criticism. He has been at war with the Bush White House for months over its lack of cooperation in the investigation into possible pressure on the Justice Department to cashier certain uncooperative federal prosecutors.
Gonzales reportedly had boned up for the session for weeks, but he continued to draw more blanks than recollections, to the point that Specter wondered about the quality of his preparations, let alone his power of recall.
What was so remarkable about the Gonzales appearance was how usually dependable Republicans on the committee joined the inquisition, particularly Alabama?s Sen. Jeff Sessions, who routinely can be counted on to throw a life preserver to any drowning GOP witness.
Sessions, a meek-sounding son of Dixie, seemingly more in sorrow than in anger said he couldn?t quite understand how Gonzales could not have remembered a meeting on only four months earlier with the president of the United States. “I?m concerned about your recollection, really, because it?s not that long ago,” he said regretfully to the tight-lipped witness.
Another Republican son of Dixie, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, drawled his own incredulity, assessing Gonzales? disavowal of dissembling as “a stretch.” Citing the attorney general?s observation that the attorneys dismissed were a case of “not the right people at the right time,” Graham said it was “clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or at the White House” and they “made up reasons to fire them.”
Gonzales forcefully denied the notion. He seemed indignant at the spectacle of fellow Republicans joining the chorus rather than rolling over for him as is customary in such congressional hearings.
The unkindest cut of all came from a fellow Texas Republican conservative, Sen. Tom Coburn, who flat out charged Gonzales with handling the controversy “incompetently” and with “atrocious” spinning of the whole saga. His solution was blunt: “You ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered, and I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation.”
The Democrats on the committee seemed content to let the Republicans administer the dagger. Either that, or they themselves were astounded to see a senatorial committee hold a hearing the way the textbooks say they should be conducted.
At the White House, they must have gotten their television channels switched. The deputy press secretary, Dana Perino, reported that “the President was pleased with the Attorney General?s testimony” and that he had his “full confidence.”
But as a stolid Gonzales left the inquisition room, it didn?t take much imagination to picture his departure as a case of Dead Man Walking.
Jules Witcover, a Baltimore Examiner columnist, is syndicated by Tribune Media Services. He has covered national affairs from Washington for more than 50 years and is the author of 11 books, and co-author of five others, on American politics and history.
