WH Fear Of CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS Is Gonzales' Safety Net-Elizabeth Holtzman

[kpete]

Alberto Gonzales’ Safety Net
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-05-02 04:54. Congress
Confirmation Hearings For His Successor Could Spawn Criminal Investigations of The White House.
By Elizabeth Holtzman, Los Angeles Times

No matter how many members of Congress lose confidence in Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush is unlikely to let him go. If Gonzales resigns, the vacancy must be filled by a new presidential nominee, and the last thing the White House wants is a confirmation hearing.

Already, the Senate is outlining conditions for confirming a Gonzales successor. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said that his panel would not hold confirmation hearings unless Karl Rove and other White House aides testify about the firing of U.S. attorneys to clarify whether “the White House has interfered with prosecution.”


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That leaves Senate confirmation hearings of a new attorney general nominee as the main leverage for Congress to secure an independent criminal investigation of the U.S. attorney firings.

Moreover, the Senate might use such hearings to do more than secure testimony from White House aides about the firings, as Leahy indicated. It also might use the opportunity to probe the Justice Department’s role in mistreatment of detainees, four years of flouting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other serious matters.

Elizabeth Holtzman is a former Democratic congresswoman from New York, is the coauthor of “The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens.”

more at:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/22047

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