Of all people, the attorney general should tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Gonzales hasn't met that standard.

At a March 13 news conference, as controversy swirled around the dismissal of eight U.S. Attorneys, Gonzales claimed that he was not involved in the firings. But Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's ex-chief of staff, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that he discussed the firings with the attorney general at least five times during the process, and Gonzales signed off on the dismissals at a meeting 10 days before they occurred.

Worse, Gonzales may have lied to a congressional committee in January when he testified that the firings were not political. Correspondence obtained as part of the congressional probe indicates that at least some of the dismissals were a result of failure to toe the political party line. Several of the targeted attorneys, including one who was fired, were investigating corruption cases involving government officials and national security.

Gonzales is scheduled to testify before Congress on April 17. Perhaps under oath he will be forthcoming about the full extent of White House involvement in the firings. Sampson said he had discussed the firings with then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers numerous times and the e-mail traffic bears that out.

Among the reasons Gonzales should go is his seemingly unquestioned loyalty to George Bush, to whom he owes his government career as a lawyer and as a judge. He's done Bush's bidding for nearly a decade, first in Texas as general counsel to Bush the governor, who appointed Gonzales to the state bench, and later as chief counsel to Bush the president.

Gonzales has signed off on the domestic spy program, torturous interrogation techniques and secret CIA prisons. He approved the practice of "extraordinary rendition," where foreign nationals are taken to foreign countries for questioning, and has supervised a Justice Department that illegally issued national security letters to secretly gather data about Americans. He has treated the Constitution and our body of laws like a poker hand, discarding the parts the Bush administration doesn't like.

We need an attorney general who works for the people, not the president. An attorney general who follows the law to the letter, and makes sure his subordinates do the same. And, above all, we need an attorney general who tells the truth.