I was on the road yesterday and missed Alberto Gonzales' performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, though I heard through the grapevine that it didn't go very well. I expected Gonzales to get poor reviews from all the usual suspects, so I set out this morning to see if I could find a single editorial supporting him. I couldn't.

Normally in situations like this you can find at least one of the right-leaning papers to throw up some sort of defense for an embattled administration figure. That fact, along with the treatment Gonzales received yesterday at the hands of many Republican Senators on the committee, speaks to how much trouble Gonzales is in.

(UPDATE: I take that back. Investor's Business Daily provides a defense of Gonzales here, saying yesterday's "inquisition amounted to a colossal waste of time" and condemning the Democrats for turning the hearing into "a circus-like political rally.")

Here's what the papers are saying:

The New York Times offered a stinging rebuke:

If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had gone to the Senate yesterday to convince the world that he ought to be fired, it’s hard to imagine how he could have done a better job, short of simply admitting the obvious: that the firing of eight United States attorneys was a partisan purge.

Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.

The Washington Post, on the other hand, struck a note of pity for Gonzales:

It was impossible to watch the hearing without feeling sorry for Mr. Gonzales, who is bogged down in uncomfortable terrain. He has to acknowledge that he knew something, but not much, about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, which makes him appear a feckless manager, a dissembler, or both. His long-awaited appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee underscored the degree to which his credibility gap has widened into a chasm, for Republicans as well as Democrats.

USA Today said "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' "make-or-break" appearance before a Senate committee Thursday turned out to be more break than make."

The Boston Globe says "It is difficult to say which version of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's role in the firing of eight US attorneys more disqualifies him as the nation's chief law enforcement officer."

Newsday said Gonzales "failed to untangle himself yesterday from the knot of lies, contradictions and misrepresentations surrounding his firing of federal prosecutors who were involved in sensitive public corruption cases."

The Dallas Morning News makes a not so subtle push for Gonzales' resignation:

In his Senate testimony yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, "The moment I believe I can no longer be effective, I will resign as attorney general." With respect, we suggest that Mr. Gonzales watch the tape of his disastrous showing in Thursday's hearing. Seeing is believing.

The Austin-American Statesman said "Gonzales' performance before the committee did little to shore up support in Congress. He left the Capitol a beaten man."

The Chicago Tribune said Gonzales was faced yesterday with the prospect of looking either clueless or incompetent. "Unfortunately for Gonzales," the Trib writes, "his hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee created the impression that he was some of both."

The Baltimore Sun keys on the exchange with Alren Spector, saying, "Senator Specter didn't urge Mr. Gonzales to resign; he counseled him instead to examine his own conscience. It will be interesting to see what the attorney general finds there."

The Arizona Republic writes "The trouble with incompetence is that it can put you in the hapless position of defending even those things you do legally because you've done them so poorly."