Minnesota senators split over Gonzales' future

(AP) - Both of Minnesota's U.S. senators on Thursday criticized Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over the firing of federal prosecutors, but they split on whether he should be forced from his job.

In a conference call with Minnesota reporters, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman said he was not satisfied with explantions about how the dismissals were handled. He stopped short of calling for Gonzales' resignation, saying "he's really got to look in the mirror and figure out if he can clean this up."

Only one Republican senator - New Hampshire's John Sununu - has publicly called for Gonzales to resign.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a former county-level prosecutor, said Gonzales should go.

"There is no place for that kind of rank politics in a prosecutor's office," she said in a telephone interview. "For that reason he should step down. He basically took some good prosecutors and shunted them aside because of political reasons and that's just wrong."

Democrats have suggested that some of the U.S. attorneys were fired for either investigating Republicans or failing to pursue cases against Democrats. Some of the dismissed prosecutors testified before Congress about being improperly pressured by Republicans on pending cases.

"I do think it's problematic," Coleman said. "I do think it is an area of concern when questions arise whether folks are being dismissed because they did or didn't pursue political cases. That's the element that is of most concern."

E-mails released this week showed that White House officials were involved in the firings.

The fired prosecutors headed the U.S. attorneys' offices in Albuquerque, N.M.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Las Vegas; Little Rock, Ark.; Phoenix; San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.

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