# Posted 10:17 AM by Taylor Owen  

LIVE BLOGGING GONZALES: He is in pretty big trouble. Specter and Leahy are both going at him VERY hard. Specter on his inconsistent statements, and Leahy on wider influences on his decision making. It seem to me that the Republicans are going after him, and the Dems have already written him off and are using the hearings to go after bigger fish. It's going to be interesting. Amazing the degree to which they are talking down to him, and he sure isn't coming across as sure footed.

Brownback asked for the reasons for each firing. One by one. Gonzales was clearly prepped for this. He is far better when he has a prepped answer, but gets awkwardly flustered when he doesn't.

Gonzales fought back to Kohl. A good prepped answer. Kohl went on about perceptions, not a useful line of questioning. Fit in with the model of Dems going after the big picture, Reps going after inconsistent testimonies.

Hatch is the first to really defend Gonzales. Softballs that Gonzales handled decently.

oh oh, here comes Feinstein...
She gets a point for her Lam questions.

Missed a couple, am back though, Schumer is on...
Hitting very hard, again on Lam. Then on Senate bypass law using Patriot act provision, and on Gonzales competency. I think he will have specters support on this one. "defies credulity". Think he gets a point on the later, not on the former.

Gonzales is conceding a lot. His fate is going to come down to whether what he concedes are fireable offenses.

Graham continuing on Senate by pass and on Sampson plan, whether Gonzales supported it etc. He is very skeptical on competence. Why did he delegate process and why did it take so long to sort things out? Repubs are basically taking the National Review incompetence argument. Wow. Graham just said that they just didn't like some judges and made up reasons to fire them.

Ed Note: This is shockingly like watching someone fight for their reality show lives in front of Trump on the Apprentice... ps. I secretly like the Apprentice

Durbin going after Sampson recommendation that Fitzgerald be fired. Gonzales doesn't think he knew about this. More on conversations with Rove... lots of 'not recalling'. Durbin ends with big line responding to Gonzales claim that they are indirectly attacking the prosecutors by going after him. Says this is like criticizing war=criticizing troops.

Session, breaks for lunch, Senate room erupts in protest. "Fire Gonzales Now!" in background...

Who knew CSPAN could be so entertaining...

We're back!

Will be more entertaining when it cycles back through to the heavy hitters.

In the interim, is there any legal reason he uses the term "I don't recall" is every second sentence? Just asking.

Gonzales is now begging for his job. Its not pretty. Coburn is hitting him hard on incompetence and his answers aren't getting very far. He says he should suffer the same consequences that the fired judges should improperly faced. He has no further questions, he believes he should offer his resignation.

Kyl is up, and asking about internet gambling, maybe he doesn't like the odds on Gonzales' fate...

Leahy is going after White House involvement again.

Hatch is coming in for a defense. It is likely too like too late though...

I think Specter might have just put the nail in Gonzales' coffin. Leahy's closing was a lot more aggressive, going after much more than just incompetence, but Specter's was more damning as it came from a Republican. My bet, for what it's worth, is that Gonzales will offer his resignation and Bush won't accept it. Overall, his performance was pretty underwhelming. Stay tunned...

Scorecard
Leahy 1, Gonzales 0
Specter 2, Gonzales 0
Kennedy 0, Gonzales 0
Brownback 0, Gonzales 1
Kohl 0, Gonzales 1
Hatch 0, Gonzales 1
Feinstein 1, Gonzales 0
...
Schumer 1, Gonzales 0
Graham 2, Gonzales 0 (very damaging)
Durbin 2, Gonzales 1 (a good spar)
Grassley 0, Gonzales 0
Cardin 1, Gonzales 0
Coburn 0, Gonzales 0
Whitehouse 0, Gonzales 0
Leahy 0, Gonzales -1
Feinstein 1, Gonzales 0
This is getting silly...the result is pretty clear though (4) opinions -- Add your opinion