Tancredo: Time for Gonzales to 'move on'

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo has joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign — only not for the usual reason.

Unlike others criticizing Gonzales over the recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the Colorado Republican said the embattled attorney general should go because of "a series of leadership failures" — chiefly his handling of illegal immigration prosecutions.

"Gonzales' legacy at the (Justice Department) has been one of misplaced priorities, political miscalculation, and a failure to enforce the laws which he has sworn to uphold," Tancredo said in a statement Tuesday. "I think that it is time for him to move on."

Gonzales' job security has been in question in recent days as members of Congress from both parties have demanded to know whether the decision to fire prosecutors was a Bush administration purge to install political cronies in plum jobs.

Tancredo said that he doesn't believe Gonzales' handling of the prosecutors' firings alone warrants his dismissal, but "his total mishandling of the affair is simply the latest in a series of leadership failures at the Justice Department."

Tancredo faulted several Justice Department decisions dealing with border crimes, including the prosecution of two border patrol agents for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler and trying to cover it up.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The FBI said Tuesday it is investigating a letter containing white powder that forced an evacuation at Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' Chapel Hill, N.C., headquarters last week.

Authorities determined that the substance in the letter wasn't dangerous and reopened the office Thursday, a day after a campaign worker opened the letter.

The FBI will investigate the incident under a post-Sept. 11 law regarding weapons of mass destruction and hoaxes, officials said Tuesday in a news release.

White powder found in letters has been associated with anthrax since five people died and 17 were sickened by the substance in 2001. Anthrax was mailed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media in New York and Florida just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

An FBI lab in Quantico, Va., is conducting further forensic tests on the letter and its contents, the FBI said.

Edwards said last week that the letter also contained "negative comments," but he didn't elaborate. No threat was indicated in the letter or on the envelope, according to initial information, the FBI said.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070320/ap_on_el_pr/on_the2008_trail [link]