Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, issued the statement below about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Sen. Grassley missed a part of the morning session of the Judiciary Committee hearing last Thursday to attend the funeral of a 32-year staff member. He subsequently reviewed the complete Gonzales testimony. Earlier this month, Sen. Grassley stated for the Judiciary Committee record his support for the authorization of committee subpoenas of Justice Department and White House officials regarding the firing of U.S. attorneys. He’s expressed frustration about the resistance of the Administration to comply with Congressional requests for information on this and numerous other oversight matters.
Sen. Grassley’s statement:
"If Attorney General Gonzales keeps his job, given the President’s expression of renewed confidence in him yesterday, then the Attorney General will have a tremendous amount of work to do to repair the damage that’s been done to his credibility and to correct the management mistakes that have been made. I may have mixed feelings about him staying in place, but the reality is that putting in a new attorney general with only 18 months left in this administration may not make much of a difference because of the heightened politicization that’s taken hold in the Senate, where a replacement would need to be confirmed, and with the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee Chairman leading the charge for replacement. I’ll be as vigilant as ever in overseeing the Justice Department and working with other Senators – both Republicans and Democrats – for accountability from the Attorney General and the Department he leads.”