April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, fighting to keep his job, failed to convince skeptical Republicans that he gave a full and accurate account of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

In more than six hours of testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales encountered almost as much criticism from members of his own party as from Democrats.

Committee member Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, said in a statement today that Gonzales should consider quitting after ``a frank discussion with the White House.''

``If he and the president decide that he cannot be an effective leader moving forward, then he should resign'' next week, said Sessions, who served as a U.S. attorney for 12 years. ``The bottom line is that he must do what is in the best interest of the Department of Justice.''

Near the end of yesterday's hearing, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, the senior Republican on the panel, told reporters that Gonzales's ``credibility has been impaired.'' He then complained to Gonzales, ``We haven't really gotten answers.''

Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, another committee member, demanded that the attorney general step down. ``The best way to put this behind us is your resignation,'' Coburn said. South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham said the Justice Department ``made up reasons to fire'' the federal prosecutors.

`Full Confidence'

Gonzales insisted he is still up to the job, and the White House said President George W. Bush spoke to him after the hearing. Bush continues to have ``full confidence'' in him, spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters today aboard Air Force One as the president flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to give a speech on Iraq.

The White House also said today that Gonzales would join two other cabinet officers on a panel that will recommend ways to stop school violence in the wake of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech.

The lone Republican on the Judiciary Committee to offer a defense for Gonzales yesterday was Orrin Hatch of Utah, who acknowledged on ``Meet the Press'' this month that some in Washington consider him a possible successor to Gonzales if he resigns. Democrats control the panel 10-9.

`Poorly Handled'

``How many times do you have to be flagellated?'' Hatch asked Gonzales. ``We can all agree that this was poorly handled, but you delegated this matter to others.''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called today for Gonzales to step down, saying in a statement that he ``has lost the trust of the American people.'' Also, Florida Representative Adam Putnam, chairman of the House Republican Caucus, called for the attorney general's resignation, said spokesman Ed Patru.

After spending much of the past few weeks preparing for his testimony, Gonzales repeatedly took responsibility for any mishandling of the firings and apologized for disrupting the lives of the U.S. attorneys.

Still, Gonzales left a host of questions unanswered, including who drew up the list of prosecutors fired last year. Gonzales said he had a limited role in the dismissals, didn't remember when he approved them and had no recollection of meeting with other Justice Department officials days before seven of the eight were ousted.

``No one can say where the names come from,'' said Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. ``How did these eight names come to pass?''

Schumer suggested the White House provided the names, and he renewed his call for Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, to testify.

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Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said neither Gonzales, his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, nor other agency officials who have been interviewed by the committee staff knew how the list was compiled.

``A human being had to'' come up with the names, she said.

Gonzales said he expected Sampson to consult with senior leaders at the agency and bring him ``a consensus recommendation'' of who should be ousted. Sampson told the panel last month that he was just an ``aggregator'' of names.

Specter urged Gonzales to give lawmakers an analysis of why each U.S. attorney was asked to resign.

``With respect to the reasons for the request for resignations, much of it continues to be murky,'' Specter told reporters.

He stopped short of calling for Gonzales's resignation but said he planned to convey concerns about the attorney general directly to Bush.

Questions Answered

In a White House statement, Perino said Gonzales ``answered all of the senators' questions and provided thousands of pages of documents'' and showed that ``nothing improper occurred.''

Democrats told reporters after the hearing that Gonzales didn't distinguish himself. They said his vague answers and hazy recollections showed that he shouldn't remain attorney general.

``Bottom line, it may not have been a knockout punch, but he took 20 steps backward,'' Schumer said. ``If the attorney general would look into his heart'' he would ``submit his resignation.''

During the testimony, about 20 protesters dressed in orange prison jumpsuits and pink police uniforms hissed and laughed loudly at some of Gonzales's statements. Several were ejected from the hearing by Capitol police after standing and calling for the attorney general to be fired.

Gonzales defended his stewardship of the Justice Department. The agency has ``done great things'' under his leadership, he said, including fighting terrorism, prosecuting gangs and locking up child predators.

``Mistakes were made'' in handling the firings and some of his statements to the media that he was out of the loop were wrong or incomplete, Gonzales said.

``I believe that I continue to be effective as attorney general,'' he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net; James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 20, 2007 16:36 EDT