URL http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902EEDC1230F935A15750C0A9619C8B63

DATE/ AUTHOR None	AUTHORS: Jim Rutenberg

H Republican Senators Express Reservations Over Gonzales

S1 Three Republican senators voiced fresh concerns on Sunday about Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's handling of the dismissals of eight United States attorneys amid questions about whether the firings were politically motivated.

S2 The comments, made in separate televised interviews by Republicans with histories of breaking with the White House, provided further indication of waning support for Mr. Gonzales where he needs it most, among fellow Republicans.

S3 Questions over Mr. Gonzales's future intensified on both sides of the aisle this weekend, after the release of Justice Department documents late Friday that detailed plans for a meeting between Mr. Gonzales and his aides in which they discussed the dismissals last year, 10 days before most of them happened.
S4 Mr. Gonzales had previously said that he was ''not involved in any discussions about what was going on'' and that he had mostly followed the process from a distance.

S5 Speaking on ''Meet the Press'' on NBC, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said he spoke with Mr. Gonzales on Saturday and told him ''he was going to have to have an explanation as to why he said he wasn't involved in discussions -- that's the key word -- and now you have these e-mails which appear to contradict that.''

S6 White House officials continued to defend Mr. Gonzales, saying the e-mail messages did not directly contradict anything he had said and noting that he had not disputed that at the end of the process he signed off on the final list of prosecutors to be dismissed.
S7 President Bush said in his Saturday radio address that he strongly supported Mr. Gonzales in the decision to oust the prosecutors, though he has said he believes that more explanation is necessary.

S8 Mr. Specter said Sunday that he would withhold judgment until he could learn more about the dismissals in Congressional testimony from Mr. Gonzales and others.
S9 But he added: ''We have to have an attorney general who is candid, truthful.
S10 And if we find he has not been candid and truthful, that's a very compelling reason for him not to stay on.''

S11 Mr. Specter, who has split with the administration on issues including domestic spying and the legal rights of terror suspects, is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

S12 Speaking on ''This Week'' on ABC, Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, said of Mr. Gonzales, ''He does have a credibility problem,'' adding, ''I think he's going to have some difficulties.''

S13 Asked by the host, George Stephanopoulos, whether Mr. Gonzales could serve effectively given the questions about his credibility, Mr. Hagel responded, ''Well, I do not, and I think the president is going to have to make a tough choice here.''

S14 Mr. Hagel has been a major Republican critic of Mr. Bush's handling of the Iraq war and is a potential 2008 presidential candidate.

S15 Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a member of the Judiciary Committee, said on ''Face the Nation'' on CBS, ''I really do like Attorney General Gonzales, but he has been wounded.''

S16 Mr. Graham added: ''He's going to have to come to the Senate and re-establish his credibility.
S17 He's going to have to prove to us that there was a legitimate reason this was poorly handled.''

S18 All three senators broke with the White House over conditions for possible Congressional interviews in the matter with White House aides, including Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, and Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel.
S19 The president has offered to allow the aides to sit for private interviews with Congress if the sessions are not transcribed or conducted under oath.

S20 Mr. Graham, Mr. Hagel and Mr. Specter said the interviews should at least be transcribed for the sake of accuracy and transparency.

S21 On Sunday, the White House found its strongest Republican defender in a onetime adversary, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican whip.
S22 In an interview on ''Fox News Sunday,'' Mr. Lott mocked the Democrats for charging that politics were involved in decisions involving political appointees.

S23 ''The horrors of horrors -- my goodness,'' Mr. Lott said.
S24 ''How were they selected in the first place?''

S25 Mr. Lott also defended Mr. Bush's decision to invoke executive privilege in refusing to provide his aides for sworn testimony before Congress, saying ''he'd be making a huge mistake'' if he decided otherwise.

S26 Later Sunday, the Democratic National Committee provided a list of quotations from Mr. Lott criticizing former President Bill Clinton for invoking executive privilege during the investigation into his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, including one in 1998 in which Mr. Lott called it improper and said, ''It looks like they are hiding something.''

S27 Also on Sunday, in an interview on ''Late Edition'' on CNN, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and a member of the Judiciary Committee, defended the terms under which Mr. Bush said his aides could be interviewed and said he still had full confidence in Mr. Gonzales.

S28 And on ''Fox News Sunday,'' Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who initially held off from calling for Mr. Gonzales's resignation, said: ''I believe he should step down.
S29 And I don't like saying this.
S30 This is not my natural personality at all.
S31 But I think the nation is not well-served by this.''

