Add the following onto the growing pile of someone-is-telling-a-lie statements:

The former Justice Department official who carried out the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that several of the prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

The statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle, former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has said that he never saw any documents about the firings and that he had "lost confidence" in the prosecutors because of performance problems.

Get ready for some truly embarrassing testimony today. I still can't believe Gonzales is actually going through with it (thought he'd finally just resign instead).

It makes you wonder why Bush/Rove are so adamant and determined to have him stay, as compared to the many other losers let go (Rumsfeld, Brownie, Miers, Wolfowitz, etc.). Is Gonzales keeping a lid on far worse transgressions that would likely come to light with a clearing-of-the-deck change of guard?