Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who is up for reelection next year, met with the editorial board of the Austin American-Statesman to discuss his positions on immigration, Iraq, and SCHIP. Most interesting, however, was his modified non-defense of his fellow Texan, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

I know Al Gonzales, and he's a good person. But I look at the jobs he's held and I wonder what has prepared him for being the head of the Department of Justice and 110,000 employees in a highly partisan and difficult political environment. ... I don't see that the Department of Justice or the White House did anything wrong in discharging U.S. attorneys who have served a term when, in fact, from a legal standpoint, they serve at the pleasure of the president.

When we were talking on the phone, I said, "Al, if you do nothing else, make sure that all of the information gets out there early and as complete a fashion as possible." And of course it didn't happen. ... And it became a public relations disaster. So, I would say that he, from a public relations standpoint, he has not done a good job.

I think he's been undermined by his own actions from the way that this has been handled. Unfortunately, he is also being targeted by partisans who are trying to exploit this for maximum political advantage ... Now, in the end, people say, well, should he stay or should he go? And there are two people who get to vote on that. One's the president of the United States and the other's Al Gonzales. And I think they have reached a correct conclusion that if Al were to leave, that there would be even more chaos when a new successor attorney general would be nominated. That nominee would be a political football during the confirmation process. And in the end, the clock would probably run out for Bush's term.

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