Reid: Gonzales’ days are numbered

Thursday, March 15, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be fired soon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid predicted Wednesday as furor continued over the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.

"I think he is gone," Reid said. "I don't think he'll last long."

How soon?

"Days," Reid told a group of Nevada reporters in his office.

Reid was just one voice among many calling on President Bush to fire Gonzales as criticism of the Justice Department continued to dominate Washington on Wednesday.

Democrats, and at least one Republican senator, say they don't believe the Justice Department's changing story line about the motive for the firings or Gonzales' explanation that he didn't know the details of actions carried out by his staff.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment late Wednesday on Reid's statement, but noted that Bush had said earlier in the day that he supported the attorney general.

Daniel Bogden, whom Bush picked to become Nevada's U.S. attorney in 2001, was told by a Justice Department official that he was being ousted to open the spot for a newcomer.

Under Bogden, the U.S. attorney's office successfully prosecuted Clark County commissioners and others in the biggest public corruption case in Nevada in decades.

Among the other seven fired federal prosecutors were several who told Congress they had rebuffed attempts by Republican lawmakers to pressure them to prosecute Democrats.

Critics of the unprecedented midterm purge say they suspect the motive was to help the Bush administration to fill the vacancies with political appointees, taking advantage of a new clause in the Patriot Act that gives the president authority to make the appointments without Senate confirmation.

One replacement was to be a former staffer of Bush adviser Karl Rove.

"I've been around this place a long time," said Reid, a four-term senator. "To have the arrogance of power to think that they could use these positions for political gain then to come to Congress to deny and lie about it, that's what Gonzales did."

Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign, who nominated Bogden, told CNN's Lou Dobbs on Wednesday: "It is completely outrageous what this United States attorney general's office has done here."

But he stopped short of calling for Gonzales to be fired. He said he was waiting to see how Gonzales "handles this crisis. We're going to find out whether he is a leader or whether he should go or not. And I think the jury is still out on that."

Ensign said he is speaking with the Justice Department about ways to restore Bogden's reputation, even to "reinstate him as U.S. attorney."

As for Bogden's replacement, Reid had a suggestion: Clark County District Attorney David Roger, a Republican.