"McNulty doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut and his head down," says a Republican staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The amount of harm he has done to his own reputation by impugning the reputations of others is remarkable."
McNulty has made no secret within his circle of political allies that he has larger ambitions than being Gonzales's deputy.
"If I had to guess, he views himself as the logical replacement for Gonzales should he be forced out," says an acquaintance who says he's familiar with McNulty's thinking. "You have Schumer calling for Gonzales to resign, and who's close to Schumer? Former DAG Jim Comey and [special prosecutor and U.S. Attorney] Pat Fitzgerald. Both of them are close to McNulty, and if you look at who got pushed out, they're USAs who weren't part of the Comey/Fitzgerald/McNulty crowd."
