WASHINGTON (AP) – Attorney General Gonzales confronted a fresh Republican call for his resignation Thursday as he struggled to survive a withering, bipartisan Senate attack on his credibility in the case of eight fired prosecutors.

“The best way to put this behind us is your resignation,” Senator Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, bluntly told Mr. Gonzales – one GOP conservative to another – at a daylong Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Mr. Gonzales disagreed and told the Oklahoma senator he didn’t know that his departure would put the controversy to rest. “I am committed to working with you in trying to restore the faith and confidence you need to work with me,” he said.

The exchange punctuated a long day in the witness chair for the attorney general, who doggedly advanced a careful, lawyerly defense of the dismissals of the federal prosecutors. He readily admitted mistakes, yet told lawmakers he had “never sought to deceive them,” and added he would make the same firings decision again.

“At the end of the day I know I did not do anything improper,” he said.

Mr. Gonzales sat alone at the witness table in a crowded room for the widely anticipated hearing. There was no doubt about the stakes for a member of President Bush’s inner circle, and support from fellow Republicans was critical to his attempt to hold his job.

“The moment I believe I can no longer be effective I will resign as attorney general,” Mr. Gonzales said after making it clear he did not believe it had come to that.

The hearing was drawing to a close on Capitol Hill when Bush spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters at the White House, “The attorney general has the confidence of the president. … The attorney general acted to replace the U.S. attorneys and there was nothing improper.”

Struggling to save his credibility and perhaps his job, Gonzales testified scores of times that he could not recall events he was asked about.

After a long morning in the witness chair, he returned to face fresh Republican challenges to his credibility. “Why is your story changing?” asked Senator Grassley, Republican of Iowa, noting that the attorney general was now accepting responsibility for the firings after initially saying he had played only a minor role.

In response, Mr. Gonzales replied that his earlier answers had been “overbroad,” the result of inadequate preparation. The process that led to the firings “should have been more rigorous,” he added, although he repeatedly defended the decisions themselves.

Moments later, Mr. Coburn delivered his verdict. He said the firing issue was “handled incompetently. The communication was atrocious. It’s generous to say there were misstatements.”

Democrats, too, bored in.

“For the good of the country, resign,” said Senator Schumer, the New York Democrat who has emerged as one of Mr. Gonzales’ most persistent critics. The attorney general replied that the burden of proof was on those alleging wrongdoing.

“Since you apparently knew very little about the performance about the replaced United States attorneys, how can you testify that the judgment ought to stand?” asked Senator Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Senator Feinstein, Democrat of California, asked Mr. Gonzales whether he had reviewed the evaluation records of the dismissed prosecutors, who Justice Department officials initially said had been fired for inadequate performance. He said he had not.

Given Mr. Gonzales’ political need for Republican support, the line of questioning from several GOP lawmakers was ominous.

“We have to evaluate whether you are really being forthright,” Senator Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, bluntly informed the nation’s chief law enforcement officer at the beginning of the hearing.

Hours later, he delivered a virtual invitation for him to step down.

He said the committee would continue its investigation and urged Mr. Gonzales to provide additional information. “If you decide to stay on it’s up to the president,” he said.

“Most of this is a stretch,” Senator Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said after listening to Mr. Gonzales’ explanation of the dismissals. “It’s clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or the White House and (they) just made up reasons to fire them.”

Senator Sessions, Republican of Alabama, said he was concerned about Mr. Gonzales’ inability to recall a meeting he attended last November when the firings were discussed.

The attorney general began his turn as a witness after a tongue-lashing from Senator Leahy, the committee’s chairman.

“Today the Department of Justice is experiencing a crisis of leadership perhaps unrivaled during its 137-year history,” said the Vermont Democrat. “There’s a growing scandal swirling around the dismissal” of prosecutors, he added.

The hearing room was filled as Mr. Gonzales slid into the witness chair at midmorning. Protesters wearing orange garb and pink police costumes were among the spectators. The words “Arrest Gonzales” were duct-taped to their backs.

Mr. Gonzales has provided differing versions of the events surrounding the firings, first saying he had almost no involvement and later acknowledging that his role was larger – but only after e-mails about meetings he attended were released by the Justice Department to House and Senate committees.

Urged in advance by Republicans to clear up any inconsistencies, Mr. Gonzales spoke at times in careful, lawyerly terms.

“I now understand there was a conversation with myself and the president,” he said at one point.

The hearing produced few if any fresh details on the firings.

Mr. Gonzales acknowledged speaking with Bush and White House adviser Karl Rove about complaints over election fraud cases in New Mexico, where David Iglesias was the chief Federal prosecutor.

The conversation with Mr. Bush occurred on Oct. 11, Mr. Gonzales said. Mr. Iglesias’ name was added to the list of those to be fired between Oct. 17 and Nov. 15 – a week after the November elections.

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Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.

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Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov