I don't remember. I don't think so. I don't remember anything like that.

The self-sacrificing witness managed -- inadvertently, perhaps -- to implicate Gonzales and Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove.

Dana Milbank, writing in the Washington Post, sees Kyle Sampson as the fall guy:  the guy who falls on his sword for the Department of Justice. Milbank  describes a situation during the hearing in which Sampson's fellow Republicans seem to be tripping over their swords, during "a modestly embarrassing hearing into a spectacle."

Republicans had, inadvertently, produced a fitting sequel to the prosecutor imbroglio. The Bush administration's mishandling of the firings of eight U.S. attorneys and the misinformation its Justice Department sent Congress turned an embarrassing story into a full scandal. Yesterday, the Senate Republicans' procedural mishap turned a modestly embarrassing hearing into a spectacle.

That's too bad for the GOP, because Sampson seemed content to fall on his sword rather than naming names when he was questioned about the prosecutor mess. Only the red felt on the witness table concealed the blood. "I could have and should have helped to prevent this," Sampson offered. "I let the attorney general and the department down. . . . I failed to organize a more effective response. . . . It was a failure on my part. . . . I will hold myself responsible. . . . I wish we could do it all over again."

Do we know yet what happened in the Senate cloakroom when the Republicans shut down the hearing for a short time? Does it matter?  Speaking of falling on swords, what seems to be happening is mass hari kiri on the part of Republicans.

Possibly Sampson wasn't really falling on his sword.  Maybe he was turning sword on two key Bush henchmen.  Maybe that's why someone in the Senate cloakroom panicked and tried to close down the hearing.