"This episode has been personally devastating to me and my family, and it's my hope that I can come up here today, and share with you the information that the committee and the Congress wants, and frankly put this behind me and my family," said D. Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, in his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary committee this morning.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, promised Mr. Sampson he will be in for a long day of questioning on what he knows about the firing of eight federal prosecutors last year.

"Maybe no one has anything to hide and everyone acted honorably, but it sure is hard to come to that conclusion based on the events of the past seven weeks," Mr. Schumer said. "Given the unbroken stream of mishaps, missteps and misstatements, the burden has shifted. It is now arguably up to the Department of Justice to show it behaved well, not for us to show that it behaved badly."

-- Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times