Gingrich joins call for Gonzales to step down

"I cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration," Gingrich said on "Fox News Sunday." "They're going to be involved in endless hearings, which is going to take up an immense amount of time and effort.

"I think the country, in fact, would be much better served to have a new team at the Justice Department, across the board," he said.

Gingrich, who is believed to be considering a run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, is the latest prominent Republican to speak out against the attorney general, and Democrats said the remarks were evidence of waning support within Gonzales' party.

"This is another important voice who believes that the attorney general should step down for the good of the country and the good of the department," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a Judiciary Committee member who has led the investigation of the dismissals, said in a statement. "We hope both the attorney general and the president heed Speaker Gingrich's message."

Gingrich, who served 11 terms in Congress and is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, defended Bush's right to replace the federal prosecutors, who are presidential appointees. But he said the administration and Gonzales had bungled the explanation of the moves and should be held accountable.

"This is the most mishandled, artificial, self-created mess that I can remember in the years I've been active in public life. And it has to -- you know, the buck has to stop somewhere, and I'm assuming it's the attorney general and his immediate team," Gingrich said.

"How could you have so totally mishandled what was a slam-dunk?" he said.

The ouster of the eight prosecutors has touched off a political firestorm and become a test of Gonzales' ability to manage the sprawling Justice Department and its 110,000 employees.

Democrats are concerned that the department, in concert with the White House, may have targeted individual prosecutors for dismissal with an eye toward affecting corruption cases in a way that would benefit Republicans.

Gonzales has said he was not involved in the details of deciding which prosecutors were to be replaced. His statements have been contradicted in sworn testimony by his former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson.