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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (20465)	6/11/2007 5:36:11 PM
From: Mr. Palau	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

given my interest in being able to sleep at night, we not venture in your family's no doubt colorful history and practices thought you would find this amusing tho "Specter to vote no confidence on Gonzales WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday he will vote for a no-confidence resolution against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, after long questioning the leadership and independence of President Bush's longtime friend. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said he's concerned like others in his party that the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and up for a test vote later in the day, was a Democratic effort to embarrass Bush and prompt Gonzales to resign. But Specter has long said that Gonzales has exercised poor leadership on a host of issues, from the firings of eight federal prosecutors to the department's handling of wiretapping authority under the Patriot Act. "If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no," Specter said during a news conference in Philadelphia. "I'm going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales." Despite Specter's decision and calls by five other Senate Republicans for Gonzales' resignation, no one was predicting that the symbolic no-confidence resolution would survive even the test vote Monday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, recommended during private meetings early in the day that GOP senators not support the motion to proceed to a debate on the resolution itself, according to a source familiar with the talks who demanded anonymity because the discussions were private. Without the 60 votes, the Senate moves on to other legislation. At a news conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe, the president reaffirmed his support for Gonzales, a longtime friend and legal adviser. "They can have their votes of no-confidence but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government," Bush said Monday. "This process has been drug out a long time. ... It's political." Still, few of the Senate's 99 members are rushing to defend Gonzales. What goodwill remained toward him after the firings of eight federal prosecutors over the winter seemed to fade after the attorney general told a Senate committee dozens of times that he could not recall key details. "I'm not going to comment on the kind of job" Gonzales has done, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition." "The vote is whether we should take a vote to express a lack of confidence by the Senate. That's wrong." White House spokesman Tony Snow brushed off the impending vote. "There's an attempt to sort of pull this thing like a piece of taffy and looking if there's any political advantage in it. There's not," Snow said on Fox News Sunday. Democrats say it's only right for senators to go on record, since five Republicans have called outright for Gonzales' dismissal and many more of the president's party have said in public comments that they have lost confidence in him. "If all senators who have actually lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales voted their conscience, this vote would be unanimous," said Schumer, who authored the resolution with Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-California. "We will soon see where people's loyalties lie." Even before the firings, Republicans and Democrats alleged widespread abuses of the USA Patriot Act's wiretapping authority by the Justice Department and the appearance that the traditionally independent law enforcement agency is being run too much at the White House's behest. But GOP senators, including those displeased by Gonzales' conduct, have widely panned Schumer's no-confidence resolution as a political trick to shake Bush's continuing support for his longtime friend. The resolution itself is only one sentence: "It is the sense of the Senate that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people." Gonzales planned to spend part of Monday in Florida, speaking at a terrorism law enforcement conference in Miami."