Editorial: Politics at heart of firings

Monday, March 19, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

As the congressional investigation into the Bush administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys untangles, it has become crystal clear that the White House's political machinations are to blame.

While the White House denied that politics played a role, e-mails released late last week show that Karl Rove, President Bush's political mastermind, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were involved in the plan from the start.

The plan to fire U.S. attorneys was being molded in January 2005 while Gonzales was the White House counsel and preparing for confirmation hearings to become attorney general. E-mails indicate that Rove had asked Gonzales' office about the plan.

Gonzales had been briefed, the e-mails say, by aide Kyle Sampson, who would go on to become his chief of staff - and fall guy - at the Justice Department. Sampson described a plan to fire some U.S. attorneys, but suggested keeping those who "are doing a great job" and "are loyal Bushies."

He also talked about the political nature of the move but deferred to Rove, writing, "If Karl thinks there would be political will to do it, so do I."

The White House and Justice Department have defended the firings, but their defenses have been shattered by the evolving nature of their story. They first said it was "performance issues," although, as in the case of former U.S. Attorney for Nevada Daniel Bogden, performance evaluations of those fired were typically good.

In a speech last week at Troy University, Rove tried to defend some of the firings, saying some attorneys did not follow administration policy. Last week Justice Department official William Moschella tried to meld the stories together by telling Congress that the firings were for reasons of "policy, priorities and management but has been referred to broadly as performance-related reasons."

Gonzales said last week that he does not recall any discussions in January 2005, but admitted that "mistakes were made." He said he is now "focused on what went wrong here and correcting those mistakes."

"Al was right," President Bush said. "Mistakes were made, and he's going to go up to Capitol Hill to correct them."

It's too late. It's time for Gonzales to resign and the White House to tell the truth.