Vote Delayed on Attorney General Nominee

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General designate Alberto Gonzales will have to wait at least another week before getting a Senate committee vote on his nomination to be the nation's top law enforcement officer.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee decided Wednesday to ask for a one-week hold on Gonzales' nomination.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said the committee should not vote on Gonzales yet because the nominee has not yet answered all of the Democrats' questions. Democrats have complained that Gonzales has been evasive with his answers to their questions about White House policies on the war on terror and they want him delayed until they are satisfied.

"If we are to meet our constitutional responsibility in the confirmation process, we must insist that Mr. Gonzales provide responsive answers to these fundamental questions," Kennedy said. "He should not be listed on the agenda for a committee vote on his nomination until he does so."

The delay means that Senate Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., can call for a confirmation vote on Gonzales at the next committee voting session, which will likely be next week when the Senate returns from its January recess.

Gonzales, who served as President Bush's lawyer during his first term, is expected to be confirmed when the Senate returns after Bush's inauguration. He would be the nation's first Hispanic attorney general and replace John Ashcroft.

In written answers to Democratic questions on Tuesday, Gonzales said he supports extending the expired federal assault weapons ban. He also told senators he wants Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act this year, despite complaints that it is too intrusive.

You answered your own question didnt you Mary Jean.

He was burned and his ashes scattered so none of us would ever know.

Did he take off in bad weather conditions because he was drunk, using drugs or just plain stupid, we will never know, but I can assure you if any pilot other than John Kennedy's son had done such a thing the NTSB would have found out. They are kind of funny about plane incidents.

Re: No autopsy on JFK, Jr. vs. any other pilot involved in the same situation...was watching a program on Discovery the other day about air accidents, and one plane in particular that went down in 1995 outside Atlanta (a small fully-loaded, 29 passenger turbo-prop, caused by a weakness in one of the propellers that gave way)...the plane crashed landed and except for the captain, the other 28 survived. The captain was knocked unconscious and subsequently died of smoke inhalation. But as you commented, an autopsy was done on this man, even when it was pretty "obvious" as to why he died. You are right...an autopsy would have been done on just anyone else. And of all pilots who crashed a plane resulting in his own death or the death of others, JFK, Jr. should have been the "ideal" candidate for having an autopsy done; yet, because of his family connection, this was avoided.

Makes me sick to see the rich/powerful get away with having to live by the "rules" the rest of us live by. And after the last week or so, seeing how the likes of Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, et al. have so disrespectfully interrogated GWB's cabinet nominations (specifically Gonzales and Rice), I believe more than ever that these despicable individuals need to go...need to be removed from the halls of our government. They are dangerous to America, IMHO.

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