Because of the politically motivated “Prosecutor Purge” scandal, Lee Terry has officially called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

A Republican congressman on Saturday urged Gonzales to resign, citing what he said were Gonzales’ contradictory statements about his role in the firing of eight federal prosecutors.

“I trusted him before, but I can’t now,” said five-term Rep. Lee Terry (news, bio, voting record), whose district includes metropolitan Omaha.

Gonzales’ credibility took a blow this past week during testimony by his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sampson, who resigned March 12, said the attorney general was regularly briefed about plans to fire the prosecutors and was involved with discussions about “this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign.”

Lawmakers impatient to hear Gonzales’ side of the story said the embattled attorney general needed to explain himself quickly or risk more damage to his department. Gonzales is to testify on Capitol Hill on April 17.

“My views were that this was Democrat posturing and a witch hunt,” Terry said. “My trust in him in that position has taken a hit because of these contradictory statements by him.”

Terry’s change of heart came on the first day of a two-week break for House members and Republicans hoped to avoid spending much of that time on the defensive about Gonzales.

Notice how Terry admits that he was wrong; that he misjudged Democrats, that he presumed the worst of partisan motives, that he abdicated his roll in Congressional oversite, that he misjudged Gonzales, and also the fact that he joined the calls for Resignation only after basically everyone else already had.

Welcome to reality Mr. Terry. We’re glad you decided to join us.