Quick takeaways:
+ Sen. Arlen Specter, the key Republican on the committee, appears to be running out of patience with Gonzales. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to hear him call for Gonzales resignation within the next few days, if not sooner.
+ Sen Kennedy got an amazing admission out of Gonzales. Although Gonzales is the sitting Attorney General, he believes that the Senate knows better than him why he fired 8 US attorneys.
+ Sen Feinstein got Gonzales to admit under oath that he did not personally look at the performance of the fired attorneys before dismissing them. Worse, he suggested that there are all kinds of different ways that the word "performance" could be interpreted, and that as a result, it was perfectly acceptable to not consider these reviews when asking for resignations. Read Ana Marie Cox's take here.
+ Sen. Feingold caught Gonzales in one hell of a logical contradiction. On the one hand, Gonzales says that he left it to his aides to determine who should and should not be fired. He's not aware of what criteria they used to compile their list, because he only approved the final product. On the other hand, he is absolutely certain that no improper motives were involved in compiling the list. This despite that fact that he thinks his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, at one point suggested some "dumb ideas" about how the firings should be conducted.
+ Sen. Leahy nailed Gonzales twice, and it looks like there's more to come. First, on the firing of David Iglesias, it is now abundantly clear that the AG is clueless.
+ Sen. Schumer's exchange with Gonzales was by far and away the most intense of the morning. The timeline that Sampson provided under oath is really pretty damning, particularly in relation to conversations the AG had with one of their fellow Senators, Mark Pryor. It appears, based on both the email records and Sampson's testimony, that Gonzales lied to Pryor. That's not something any of the Senators, no matter which party they come from, are going to let slide. Even worse, if you were to accept Gonazles' story, it would mean that his own Chief of Staff was pursuing policies behind Gonzales' back that he had explicitly rejected. Not good.
+ Sen. Leahy had one particularly pointed exchange with Gonzales during Schumer's questions. Gonzales frequently claims that he remembers - vaguely at best - that certain key events did in fact happen. In most cases, however, he cannot recall the details, and he almost never can recall when specifically they happened. amazingly, he can't even recall when he made the decision to authorize the firing of the 8 selected attorneys. Leahy, as you can see here, simply doesn't believe that, and he promises to return to the question in the afternoon.
+ Lindsey Graham, who followed Schumer, actually picked up right where he left off, accusing Gonzales of "making up reasons" for the firings.
+ Last but not least, there was an amazing exchange between Sen. Durbin and Gonzales just before break. Gonzales warned the Senator against criticizing him or the department, because such criticisms might undermine the morale of the people serving in the DoJ. Durbin exploded at him, suggesting that was just as misguided as connecting criticisms of the president with criticisms of the troops. It seemed to me like a line that Gonzales had prepared in advance, but if it was, he definitely needed more rehearsal time. Durbin pushed back so hard Gonzales was almost immediately forced to give way.
After what I've seen so far, I cannot imagine how Gonzales can continue to serve as the Attorney General. At the same time, I haven't seen anything that would suggest Gonzales is even considering resignation, and I have no reason to believe that the president will force him to leave.
Either way, the second half of the hearings should be quite interesting.
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