As Goes Rumsfeld, So Goes...Gonzales?

Chief White House Correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh reports:

Rummy redux? Some Republicans think so. They see parallels to the political demise of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the current situation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. President Bush publicly insisted that he had no intention of ousting Rumsfeld before he forced the Pentagon chief out of his job just after last year's midterm elections.Some see a similar pattern in Bush's stout defense of Gonzales yesterday and predict that the president is digging in his heels now to show that he won't submit to pressure but will move Gonzales out when things calm down.

"It reminds me of what happened to Rumsfeld," says an informal White House adviser. "Will Al Gonzales be around much longer? I can't see it. Al has no credibility and your attorney general needs credibility or he can't do his job effectively. He has not been straight with members of Congress or he has been out of the loop on these U.S. attorney firings. Either way, this is seen as serious business, and Al has not handled it well."