It is time for Alberto Gonzales to be replaced as attorney general of the United States. The case has grown stronger as the weeks and months of implausibility and fumbling have accumulated. After his performance on Tuesday giving testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, there can be no doubt. Gonzales has lost credibility, he contradicts himself, stumbles, and leaves Democratic and Republican members of Congress shaking their heads in disbelief....

...Even if one could stipulate that Gonzales and his colleagues had done nothing nefarious or even merely bizarre at Justice or the White House, whether about the firing of U.S. attorneys or terrorist surveillance or anything else -- and one cannot -- it would still be necessary to find a new AG. For Gonzales is evidently incapable of making the case that there is no cause for suspicion or condemnation. If administration behavior in Justice-related matters has been pure, President Bush needs someone a whole lot better than his friend Gonzales explaining it on Capitol Hill.

Oversight is a congressional responsibility, and testimony is an executive duty. Gonzales is not doing his duty. A high-ranking official who does not do his duty and appears incapable of doing it cannot be allowed to keep his job. By keeping Gonzales, the president is once again taking loyalty too far and allowing his administration to be damaged.

Often criticized as secretive and stalemated, the House ethics committee took a leap into transparency yesterday with a landmark open hearing that asked frequent sponsors of private congressional trips -- and one government watchdog -- how the chamber should change its travel standards.

[Heritage Foundation Vice President for Government Relations Michael] Franc urged a different standard for staffers than lawmakers. The former, he observed, can be fired, while the latter should not face expulsion for travel slipups unless they involve a felony.