Key Senator Supports Vote Against Gonzales

Jun 12, 07:57 AM

Current Headlines: By Brian Knowlton

In an embarrassment for the Bush administration, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday that he would cast a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the focus of fierce criticism over the firings of U.S. attorneys. "If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no," the Pennsylvania senator said in Philadelphia, hours before the debate began in the Senate on the matter. "I'm going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales."

Five other Senate Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for Gonzales's resignation, although there was no sign they would join Specter in voting no-confidence.

But that might be moot. Republicans appeared to have the votes and the determination to short-circuit the no-confidence motion, a symbolic measure that may have been Democrats' last serious attempt to pressure President George W. Bush to fire Gonzales.

Bush has stood firmly behind his attorney general and did so again Monday.

The president said from Sofia at the end of his European trip, "They can have their votes of no-confidence but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government."

Gonzales has said he has no plans to step down.

That left Democrats with few options to dislodge him. The likely outcome underscored the limits of the party's new but narrow congressional majority.

The Republicans' Senate leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has recommended that his party's senators not support a motion to proceed to debate on the no-confidence resolution, a source familiar with the talks told The Associated Press.

That made it unlikely that Democrats would garner the 60 votes they needed.

Democrats and a number of Republicans have been harshly critical of Gonzales, a longtime confidant of Bush's, for his role in the firings of at least eight U.S. prosecutors and his inability or unwillingness to provide what senators felt were satisfactory explanations.

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