It’s increasingly clear that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is in his present job now only because one man wants him there — just as it’s becoming increasingly clear by the day that policy in Iraq is unlikely to significantly change until that one man leaves office.

By most accounts, Gonzales has now emerged as the real “uniter not a divider” — uniting Democrats and independent-minded Republicans in a belief that he is the worst man at the worst time in the Attorney General’s post. And it’s likely history will record him as such. Time Magazine:

Just when it seemed that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ reputation on Capitol Hill couldn’t possibly get much worse, he showed up Tuesday for yet another hearing. And as with so many of his recent appearances before Congress, his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee raised a lot more troubling questions than it answered — not just about his own conduct of and honesty about the U.S. Attorney firings, but also about the Administration’s domestic intelligence gathering programs.

That new wrinkle stemmed from Gonzales’ testy exchange with Senator Arlen Specter, the panel’s top Republican. Specter opened up with former Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s testimony to the panel in May over Gonzales’ actions while serving as White House Counsel. Comey had alleged that Gonzales tried to convince an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was in the hospital recovering from gallbladder surgery, to sign off on Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. “There are no rules saying he couldn’t take back authority,” Gonzales said, trying to explain that they had hoped Ashcroft might be able to sign off on an intelligence program due to expire the next day, a program that Comey as acting AG had refused to renew.

(The best comment on that comment is a stunned silence from yours truly.)

But what Specter really wanted to know was how that meeting squared with Gonzales’ previous testimony that there had been no serious internal disagreements over the program. Gonzales seemed to believe he had a simple explanation. “The disagreement that occurred was about other intelligence activities, and the reason for the visit to the hospital was about other intelligence activities,” the Attorney General said. “It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.”

Both Specter and later Senator Chuck Schumer latched onto Gonzales’ puzzling comment. Schumer in particular brought up several examples where in sworn testimony Gonzales has named the Terrorist Surveillance Program as the one at issue during the hospital visit to Ashcroft’s room. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy then ordered a complete review of Gonzales’ statements to the committee. “This is such a significant and major point,” Leahy said. “There’s a discrepancy here in sworn testimony and we’re going to find out who’s telling the truth.”

Another Senator all but called Gonzales a liar:

Senator Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who was involved in the briefings at the time of the hospital visit, said the so-called Gang of Eight — the eight top bipartisan members of Congress on intelligence issues — were not briefed about any sunset the program was facing, as Gonzales claimed. He also emphatically refuted Gonzales’ statements that there was more than one program under discussion at the time and that the Gang of Eight had agreed the program was so important that if it had been allowed to lapse they were considering emergency legislation.

“Once again he’s making up something to protect himself and creating situations that never happened,” Rockefeller said, adding that “based on what I know about it, I’d have to say” Gonzales has committed perjury.

And it gets even WORSE:

Much of Gonzales’ time was spent telling the committee he couldn’t remember, wasn’t up to date or wasn’t at liberty to discuss the details on everything from the department’s controversial settlement with the makers of Oxycontin, a drug believed responsible for dozens of deaths and his consideration of death penalty cases. to his involvement in drafting U.S. torture guidelines while working at the White House and why he apparently lied to a Senate panel over President George W. Bush’s warrant-less wiretapping programs.

When Specter asked Gonzales whether the President has the right to prohibit the Department of Justice from pursuing Congressional charges of contempt against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten — the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow is expected to issue two contempt citations for their refusal, citing executive privilege, to comply with subpoenas to testify — Gonzales had a short lawyerly response. “I am recused of speaking on that matter due to the ongoing investigation,” he said.

….He couldn’t remember answers for even the rare friendly inquisitors.

The question (again): Why is it that the Bush administration is staffed with so many people with memory problems?

Perhaps taxpayers ought to send them some of this.

ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY

Senator Whitehouse versus Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. When you watch this, how does Gonzales come across to you? As a high-aiming, principled Attorney General of the United States or as a defense lawyer?

NEXT Watch Gonzales basically REFUSE to answer Senator Chuck Schumer’s repeated question about who sent him to to then Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital bed. Can we draw conclusions about a)who sent him and b)whether Gonzales’ assertions can be trusted and c)whether anything he says should be given the benefit of the doubt again? Watch and decide: