Did Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, just call for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over the prosecutor purge scandal? You be the judge (h/t TPM Muckraker).

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested that Gonzales's status as the nation's leading law enforcement officer might not last through the remainder of President Bush's term, pointedly disputing the attorney general's public rationale for the mass firings.

"One day there will be a new attorney general, maybe sooner rather than later," Specter said at a committee hearing where a new round of subpoenas to the Justice Department was considered.

After the meeting, Specter declined to elaborate on that remark, but told reporters that most of the blame for the ongoing controversy rests with the attorney general. "It's snowballing, mostly with the help of the Department of Justice," he said.

Specter is certainly not a doctrinaire conservative -- at least not the likes of John Ensign, who has also come out recently with sharp words over this scandal -- but this could nonetheless be a real problem for the Bush administration and AG Gonzales, specifically, as they try to combat the coverage of this scandal. Should it come to the point where Gonzales is hauled before the judiciary committee or, however unlikely (at this point, at least), he is impeached in the House and tried in the Senate, Specter could serve as a strong Republican voice in opposition to the prosecutor purge.

Update [2007-3-8 17:59:32 by Jonathan Singer]: Just in from Chuck Schumer, via release, Gonzales appears to be beginning to back down.

“While we didn’t get any better explanation for these unprecedented firings, two important developments came from this meeting. First, the Attorney General told us the Administration would not oppose our legislation requiring Senate confirmation for all U.S. Attorneys. Second, in one form or another, each of the five Department of Justice witnesses will be made available to us for questioning. The details and venue are still being worked out, but we are hopeful they will cooperate.