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Updated: 1:03 PM- WASHINGTON -- House Democrats pressed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today on who was responsible for deciding to fire eight U.S. Attorneys, but made little headway in getting an answer.

Gonzales took responsibility for the decision but repeatedly said he could not say who put specific names on the list of those prosecutors targeted for dismissal. He accepted the recommendations of Kyle Sampson, a Utah native and then his chief of staff.

"You won't tell the American people who put (New Mexico U.S. Attorney David) Iglesias on the list to be fired. It's a national secret, isn't it?" Asked Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla. "You know who put them on the list, but you won't tell us."

Gonzales said he did not know, but ruled out involvement by President Bush or the vice president.

Support from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee showed none of the cracks in support for Gonzales exhibited by their Senate counterparts during a hearing last month, where one GOP senator called for the attorney general to resign.

Instead, the Republican members said the investigation should be brought to an end.

"The list of accusations has mushroomed, but the evidence of wrongdoing has not," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas.. "If there are no fish in this lake, we should reel in our lines of questions, dock our empty boat."

Many Republicans pressed other issues, asking questions about immigration, intellectual property, and the status of an investigation into Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. Gonzales was asked at least twice how many employees are in the department.

"We're acting around this place like U.S. Attorneys are the product of immaculate conception and once they've been created that can't be undone," said Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif.

Democrats asked about facts surrounding the departure of two additional U.S. Attorneys beyond the eight the inquiry had focused on thus far. Todd Graves in Missouri told reporters this week he was pressed to leave, and Debra Yang in California left in the midst of a high-profile investigation.

Gonzales said he did not consider Graves to be among those asked to leave as a result of Sampson's review.

Graves said he was asked by a senior Justice Department official to resign in January 2006 to give someone else a chance in the office.

Lungren became visibly angry when Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., asked about Yang stepping down as prosecutor to join the law firm representing Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., who was reportedly part of an investigation by her office.

Lungren threw down his pen and complained to a colleague about "this Star Chamber crap."

It was wrong, Lungren insisted, to portray Lewis as a "target" of the investigation, and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, demanded her words be "taken down" - stricken from the record - an unusual step. The representatives bickered as Gonzales sat silently, until Sanchez apologized and agreed, if she had used the word "target" to have it stricken.

Cannon later defended the review of the prosecutors, quoting extensively from testimony by David Margolis, a senior career Justice Department official, who supported a review of U.S. Attorney performance, and thought at least two of the dismissals were warranted - Carol Lam in Southern California and David Iglesias of New Mexico.

"Given everything I know today, he would've been No. 1 on my list to go," Cannon read from Margolis' testimony.

There was little other drama or new revelations from Gonzales' now well-worn explanations.

Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., earlier had Capitol Police evict several Code Pink anti-war protesters, and several more were thrown out during the recess.