Gonzales: "I Have Nothing To Hide"

Alberto Gonzales will finger chief-of-staff Kyle Sampson as the point man on the U.S. attorney firings but won't cop to any major wrongdoing, an advance copy of his congressional testimony tomorrow reveals. He admits only to lesser sins—withholding "dignified"  treatment from pink-slipped U.S. attorneys, for instance—and says it was Sampson who cherry-picked attorneys to ax and suggested potential replacements.

The carefully scripted monologue continues a P.R. blitz that began with an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post. But it contradicts Sampson's testimony, and has won over few congressional skeptics. “The op-ed piece was Pablum,” says Arlen Specter, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, while the testimony, says Democrat Chuck Schumer "does not advance his cause at all." (More Alberto Gonzales stories.)