A hopeless performance.

President Bush already has made it clear that he doesn't care what the Democratic majority in Congress or the American people think about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

But surely Bush must pay attention when a leading senator from his own party suggests that the nation's top law enforcement officer's "credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable."

Gonzales returned to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to answer questions about the White House's purge last year of nine U.S. attorneys. The visit was intended to mend relations with members of Congress. But it accomplished just the opposite, as Gonzales' efforts to explain prior misstatements served only to underscore his lack of truthfulness and candor - and, above all, his unfitness for office.

Gonzales' worst moment - and there were many - was his flailing effort to explain his now-famous 2004 visit, along with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in the hospital as Ashcroft recovered from gallbladder surgery.

James Comey, a former Ashcroft deputy, told the Judiciary Committee earlier this year that Gonzales and Card had attempted to strong-arm the ailing Ashcroft into overriding objections Comey had to an administration anti-terrorism program. Ashcroft had appointed Comey acting attorney general while he was recovering from surgery.

Gonzales, who at the time was White House counsel, told the committee that he had decided to approach Ashcroft only after an "emergency meeting" with senior congressional leaders in the White House situation room. He insisted that he wanted Ashcroft to know that "the consensus" among the lawmakers was that the intelligence program should be continued, even though Comey had refused to give his department's legal stamp of approval.

It was this unconvincing explanation - along with Gonzales' insistence, contrary to the claims of some lawmakers who were present at that emergency meeting, that there had been consensus among members of both parties that the anti-terror program should be continued - that prompted Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to warn the attorney general that he may have just committed perjury.

Then there was Gonzales' brazen refusal to even discuss the decision of the White House, based on his Justice Department's legal opinion, to assert executive privilege and refuse to provide documents and testimony about the prosecutor firings to congressional investigators.

On the day before the Judiciary Committee approved resolutions holding two Bush aides in contempt for their refusal to cooperate with the investigation, Gonzales also refused to discuss the White House's decision to order the Justice Department not to prosecute the aides for congressional contempt.

Asked by Specter whether Gonzales thought "you can have a constitutional government" when the administration blocks congressional oversight, Gonzales declined to comment. The question, he said, related to "an ongoing controversy in which I am recused."

"I'm not going to pursue that question, Mr. Attorney General," Specter responded, "because I see it's hopeless."

As long as Gonzales remains as attorney general, the prospects for restoring integrity and respect for the rule of law to the Justice Department remains just as hopeless.