Coburn Urges Resignation Of Attorney General

Thursday, April 19th 2007, 5:35 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confronts a fresh Republican call for his resignation Thursday as he struggles to survive a withering, bipartisan Senate attack on his credibility in the case of eight fired prosecutors. During a daylong Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn told Gonzales that, quote, "The best way to put this behind us is your resignation."

Gonzales disagreed and told Coburn, a fellow conservative Republican, that he didn't know that his departure would put the controversy to rest.

Gonzales says he is committed to working with Coburn in trying to restore the faith and confidence the senator needs to work with him.

During the hearing, the attorney general doggedly advanced a careful, lawyerly defense of the dismissals of the federal prosecutors.

He readily admitted mistakes, yet told lawmakers he had "never sought to deceive them," and added he would make the same firings decision again.

The attorney general says he knows he did not do anything improper