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US attorney general 'must go'
12/03/2007 17:02 - (SA)
Washington - Congressional Democrats called on Sunday for US attorney general Alberto Gonzales to be fired, after revelations that the FBI had abused its power to get Americans' personal information and other problems on Gonzales's watch.
US senator Charles Schumer, who led the charge, cited a report last week that the FBI had misused its power under the Patriot Act as another bad misstep by Gonzales, who as White House counsel argued that war-on-terror detainees should not be afforded all the protections of the Geneva Conventions.
"The justice department must be above politics. Attorney general Gonzales is a nice man, but he doesn't understand he's no longer the president's lawyer," the Democratic lawmaker told CBS television.
Shumer also noted the firings of eight federal prosecutors - allegedly for political reasons - and mass defections of attorneys from the justice department's civil rights division as evidence Gonzales should go.
"From the mishandling of the US attorney firings to the now-documented abuses of the Patriot Act to wiretapping without a warrant to decimating the civil rights division, there has been a continuing pattern of mismanagement and disrespect for the rule of law," he said.
"For the sake of the nation, I'm asking attorney general Gonzales to step down."
Another leading Democratic senator, presidential contender Joseph Biden, also said he believed the attorney general had overstayed his welcome.
"I think Gonzales has lost the confidence of the vast majority of the American people," said Biden on Sunday, speaking on CNN.
"I think it's an abuse of power. And I think he's lost the confidence of the American people," he said.
"Obviously, it is the president's judgement to say whether he should stay or not, but I think he's lost the confidence of the congress," Biden said.
- AFP
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