Gonzales resignation watch.

From The Politico:

President Bush on Tuesday called Gonzales, offering a public show of support. And White House press secretary Tony Snow said that news reports about a search for a replacement were “flat false.”

But people involved in the process to sound out potential replacements for Gonzales said they had not talked to Snow. A GOP loyalist close to the White House said the process went on ice after Bush made his call to Gonzales. “They were reaching out,” the operative said. “Now, we’re in lockdown. We’re just waiting. They’ve reached out to everyone they need to reach out to and are waiting to get a ‘yes’ from someone.”

Newsweek:

Bush attempted to belay that talk earlier Tuesday, when, just minutes after arriving at the Oval Office for his usual round of morning briefings, he placed a call to Gonzales, his old friend from Texas, to let the attorney general know that his job was not on the line. But even some alumni of the Bush White House say that call means little for Gonzales’s job security. True, Bush is not likely to fire Gonzales. But these former aides say they expect Gonzales to offer up his own resignation, just as former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld did after the GOP lost the midterm elections. (That move, you might recall, followed closely on the heels of a public expression of Bush’s support for Rumsfeld.)