CRAWFORD, TEXAS — With Republican support for Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales eroding, President Bush offered renewed confidence in his longtime friend Monday and said the attacks on him were "pure political theater."
But the president did not respond directly when asked whether he expected Gonzales to serve until Bush's term ends on Jan. 20, 2009.
Senate Democrats last week called for a vote of no confidence in the attorney general, while more Republicans joined in suggesting his resignation. The heat on Gonzales stems from an investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year and his testimony about it to Congress. Democrats and some of the fired prosecutors have said they suspect the dismissals were done not for performance reasons, as Gonzales has stated, but for political reasons, such as trying to influence elections.
Turning his anger on Congress, without mentioning individuals or even parties, Bush said that lawmakers should be focusing more on approving bills and less on what he presented as political role playing. And with no signs that the attorney general's problems in Washington are abating -- indeed, he faced new challenges over the weekend -- Bush jumped at the opportunity to defend him.
Speaking at an abbreviated news conference outside the one-story stone office at his Prairie Chapel Ranch, Bush insisted, as he has since Gonzales found himself at the center of the controversy, that the attorney general had "done nothing wrong."
Bush added that Gonzales was up against the sort of theatrical behavior that had "caused the American people to lose confidence in how Washington operates."
"I stand by Al Gonzales and I would hope that people would be more sober in how they address these important issues," Bush said. "And they ought to get the job done of passing legislation, as opposed to figuring out how to be actors on the political theater stage."
While breaking no new ground in his defense of Gonzales -- who served as his first White House counsel and, before that, as a Texas Supreme Court justice and a Bush legal advisor in Texas -- the president's response offered a new sign of support.
Gonzales appeared to have weathered the worst of the U.S. attorneys affair when some House Republicans came to his support in a hearing this month.
