Gonzales Wins Confirmation as Attorney General

Reuters ^ | Feb 3, 2005 | Reuters

[mdittmar]

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales survived a Democratic wall of opposition on Thursday to win U.S. Senate confirmation as the nation's next attorney general. He will be the first Hispanic-American to hold the post.

In approving Gonzales, the Republican-led Senate rejected Democratic complaints he had helped craft administration policies that contributed to the torture of foreign detainees following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

[Dog Gone]

Senate OKs Gonzales As Attorney General

By JESSE J. HOLLAND

WASHINGTON - Alberto Gonzales won Senate confirmation Thursday as attorney general despite Democratic accusations that he helped formulate White House policies that led to overseas prisoner abuse and was too beholden to President Bush to be the nation's top law enforcement official.

The Senate voted 60-36 to put the first Hispanic ever into the job, with all of the "no" votes coming from Democrats. Last week, 13 Democrats voted against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's confirmation.

Gonzales will replace John Ashcroft, who four years ago won confirmation by an even smaller margin, 58-42.

Republicans and some Democrats praised Gonzales' life story: the grandson of Mexican immigrants who worked his way up to being President Bush's top lawyer in the White House.

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., the first Cuban-American senator, even broke with Senate tradition and praised Gonzales in Spanish on the Senate floor on Wednesday. "This is a breakthrough of incredible magnitude for Hispanic-Americans," he said in English.

Democrats praised Gonzales as well, but many said they couldn't look past his participation in administration policies they said had led to abuses that occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They also complained that he refused to answer their questions on how those policies were created inside the White House.

"Mr. Gonzales was at the heart of the Bush administration's notorious decision to authorize our forces to commit flagrant acts of torture in the interrogation of detainees," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

link to AP story

[You Dirty Rats]

We'll just keep kicking them while they are down. Next up: Ramming judicial appointments through. Janice Rogers Brown -- COME ON DOWN!! You're the next contestent on THE SENATE IS RIGHT!!!!

If this keep up I'm going to have to go to my doc to get treated for a Cialis side effect -- and I don't even use the drug!

Sucks to be a 'Rat in 2005.

[dfwgator]

"Mmmm, your tears are so yummy and sweet. Mmm, the tears of unfathomable sadness."

[stopem]

Stop spreading ugly lies!

[RushCrush]

i see- thanks

[dirtboy]

The usual suspects, I see.

[jocko12]

Dimwits lose again.

[k2blader]

Yuck. But not surprising.

[onyx]

HA!
Many of the same names against Condi.

[Soul Seeker]

Nah. Christians trump Hispanics appointed by Republicans in the Dems' minds.

[Not A Snowbird]

Why do you say that? The Attorney General doesn't make the law.

[mysto]

Wait. I'm seeing you say it was 85-13, someone else is saying 60-36. Who's right?
The 85-13 vote was for Condi.

[Not A Snowbird]

reenact clinton assault weapon ban, he wil ok passage of it!

The AG has nothing to do with it.

[ssaftler]

The "Usual Suspects", I see.

YAWN!

[stopem]

I am Pro-life and the fact that he is pro-choice I find disturbing but as you say in his current position it may not be a issue.

[mysto]

Many of the same names against Condi.
The ARE the names against Condi... cheme's got it wrong. The vote for Gonzales was 60-39, not 85-13... that was Condi's vote total.

[Jackson57]

PLEASE, everyone, 60 - 36 is the vote for Gonzales. The previous reported number, 85 - 13 was for Rice.

[ronnied]

his brother is a policeman in houston i believe, for his safety he wants the ban in effect again!