On May 16, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) said: “When you have to spend more time up here on Capitol Hill instead of running the Justice Department, maybe you ought to think about [stepping down].” (AP, 5/16/07) Today Sen. Roberts voted against the Alberto Gonzales no-confidence vote.

On April 25, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said: “I am very disappointed in [Alberto Gonzales’] performance … I think loyalty to the president should enter into his calculations… I think that out of loyalty to the president that [resigning] would probably be the best thing that he could do.” (Washington Post, 4/25/07) Today Sen. McCain sacked up and no-voted, helping assure that Gonzales’ disappointing performance continues.

On April 19, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said: “But to me, there has to be consequences to accepting responsibility. And I would just say, Mr. Attorney General, it’s my considered opinion that the exact same standards should be applied to you in how this was handled. And it was handled incompetently. The communication was atrocious. It was inconsistent. It’s generous to say that there were misstatements. That’s a generous statement. And I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered. And I believe that the best way to put this behind us is your resignation.” (Judiciary Committee Hearing, 4/19/07) Today, Sen. Coburn no-voted, helping assure that Gonzales would not, in fact, suffer any consequences.

On April 20, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said: “There are some problems that he just hasn’t handled well, and it might just be best if he came to a conclusion that the department is better served if he’s not there.” (AP, 4/20/07) Today, Sen. Sessions voted to make sure that Gonzales would be there.

On April 19, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said: But at the end of the day, you said something that struck me, ‘That sometimes it just came down to these were not the right people at the right time.’ If I applied that standard to you, what would you say? (Judiciary Committee Hearing, 4/19/07) With today’s vote, Sen. Graham made clear that whatever Gonzales said is just fine by him. (Sources: Raw Story and the Democratic Caucus).