Posted on 05/20/2007 10:33:51 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The top Republican on the Senate committee investigating Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes Gonzales could step down before a no-confidence vote sought this week by Senate Democrats.
Gonzales failed to draw a public statement of support from Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record). Asked whether Gonzales effectively can lead the Justice Department, McConnell said "that's for the president to decide." The senator suggested there may be several resolutions introduced to dilute a no-confidence vote.
"In the Senate, nobody gets a clear shot," said McConnell, R-Ky.
Yet Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he believed a "sizable number" of GOP lawmakers would join Democrats in expressing their lack of confidence in the attorney general.
Five Republicans have urged Gonzales to resign over his firing of federal prosecutors, while several other Republicans have expressed criticism of his actions.
"Votes of no confidence are very rare," Specter said. "Historically, that is something which Attorney General Gonzales would like to avoid. I think that if and when he sees that coming, he would prefer to avoid that kind of a historical black mark."
The White House has called the upcoming vote a "political stunt" and said Gonzales retains President Bush's confidence.
Specter long has made it clear he believed the Justice Department no longer functioned well because of Gonzales' handling of the prosecutor firings and that as a result Gonzales would step down.
But Specter's comments Sunday raised the pressure on Gonzales and Bush, who has indicated Gonzales would not be leaving anytime soon.
Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) of California said they will seek a vote on a nonbinding resolution as early as this week to express what senators of both parties have said for weeks: that Gonzales has become too weakened to run the department.
A no-confidence vote, though symbolic, probably would create trouble for Gonzales. Any attorney general needs to work with Congress on legislation, as well as nominees who require Senate confirmation. Gonzales would need to confirm a new deputy attorney general because his current one, Paul McNulty, is leaving over the firings of federal prosecutors.
Gonzales will be in Europe next week, visiting his counterparts in Hungary and Switzerland before joining a conference of leading industrial nations Thursday in Germany. He will be back in Washington on Friday — the night before the long Memorial Day weekend and a planned congressional vacation.
Specter and other senators said they were particularly troubled by testimony last week that Gonzales, when he was Bush's White House counsel, pressured then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to certify the legality of Bush's controversial eavesdropping program while Ashcroft was in intensive care.
In his testimony, former deputy attorney general James Comey said he thought the no-warrant program was questionable and violated the law. Gonzales and White House chief of staff Andy Card then headed to Ashcroft's sick bed at George Washington University Hospital in an unsuccessful bid to convince Ashcroft otherwise. The program was eventually certified after it was modified.
On Sunday, Schumer sent a letter to Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, asking if they personally ordered Gonzales to Ashcroft's hospital room. When asked twice by reporters last week, Bush refused to answer.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he did not believe that Gonzales acted illegally. If Bush chooses to support Gonzales, then senators should work on passing legislation such as immigration reform rather than playing "gotcha" games, said Graham, R-S.C.
"I want to focus on that, rather than pass a resolution, that's never been done in the history of the Congress, to play 'gotcha' politics with the attorney general," he said.
Specter appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," McConnell spoke on ABC's "This Week," and Graham was on "Fox News Sunday."
Does that drivel mean you’re not going to answer the question?
I hope he doesn’t, because there’s really no reason for him to do so. That said, he’s been so low-keyed and ineffectual as AG that nobody would notice.
Bush needs a bulldog there.
Could be. They need something to take the focus off immigration.
Why deprive the Senate of the opportunity to vote? Are the Senators afraid? If they’re so convinced he shouldn’t be in office, they should be willing to vote the courage of their convictions.
I’m firmly convinced that professional politicians are some of the most worthless people in society.
Tell me what's wrong with that picture.
Gonzo could get a measure of revenge before he goes by highlighting the illegal activities of some Dems lately...like Diane Feinstein and others.....but he lacks the cojones so his loss is no big deal. And Bush makes nice with these vicious hateful Dems. DC is a sewer of vermin.
If Gonzales goes can you imagine the promises Bush’s next candidate for AG would have to make to the Judiciary committee in order to get confirmed? Bush might as well move someone up to Acting AG and leave it at that. Or do a recess appointment.
Who cares!!! Adios Senor Gonzales and take Bush with you!!
If Gonzales and Bush were on a skyscraper and both fell off at the same time, who would hit the ground first?
Answer: WHO CARES?
Same with the rest of the congress. This country is going to hell in a hand basket and these jokers do not have a clue.
I certainly hope Gonzales is on the way out. He is only hurting the administration he works for.
I guess we can expect the next whining tell-all book about how nothing was his fault 6 months afterward.
Bush needs a bulldog there.
Harriet Miers?
The Justice Department STILL has not administered a lie-detector test to Sandy Berger.
The Justice Department is corrupt to the core, and Bush apparently likes it that way.
Good riddance to bad garbage. Buh-bye, Gonzales.
That would be preferable to getting ANYBODY who the rats approved of. On the other hand, Bush hasn't shown much interest in cleaning up the Justice Department anyway.
"Many conservatives burrowed within the Department of Justice have long complained that Gonzales has permitted career government employees and hold-overs from Democratic Administrations to remain in perches of power and thereby water down conservative directives from the top. As one conservative and Federalist Society member in the Justice Department told me: “This is definitely not Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department, I assure you. You have holdovers from Clinton calling the shots in a lot of places here.” "
This isn’t a parliamentary system, a “no confidence” vote is (or should be) meaningless. The Senate already had a shot at the functional equivalent of a no confidence vote when they confirmed the guy, they shouldn’t get a “do over”. There are a lot of us who would not be unhappy to see Alberto go, but let’s be careful what we wish for, for his removal would only whet the appetite of the Democrat predators (and set the stage for the Bush and/or Cheney impeachment). Anyone who thinks that the next AG the President might appoint would be any less pro-illegal immigrant or more willing to prosecute Democrat law-breakers than AG Gonzales, is deluding himself/herself.
I'd say it's the other way around, since you're about as conservative as a junior Giuliani staffer. If a Democrat is for gun control, it's "liberal." If your Republican President's new Attorney General is for gun control, it's "law and order." That's not conservative. That's not patriotic. That's not even smart.
You seem to confuse your own personal emotion based hysteria for fact. You seem to be totally confused by the US Constitution concept of separation of powers.
Again, you're acting like a liberal junior political staffer. This is not a game. Our liberties are the most precious thing we have. The current crop of big government globalists running the show in DC have little concern for that (as I note neither do you). Of course any alarm bells sounded by patriots will cause a knee-jerk accusation of "hysteria." I find it hysterical that more people aren't concerned. But I'm not surprised about you. You've shilled for the globalists continually. You're on their side.
Just for the record, I'm more interested in what the NRA has to say about Gonzales than you and your "separation of powers" technicalities, thrown up as a smoke screen to cloak the tyrannies this man has prepared for us:
That brings us to the point: this party has no principles, and it's all about power for them. No wonder people are running away in droves. And it's very predictable that you're right here, defending the betrayers of our Constitution, and calling those who would sound the alarm bell "hysterical."
I also note that you've taken time out of your busy day to insult one of FR's finest patriots, who served honorably during wartime (Vietnam?). That's also the "liberal" thing to do, insulting veterans.
Damn, you went deep for that. A year and a half ago. I’m beginning to forget my own war stories. Thanks for the compliment, although, I never considered myself a patriot. Most of my friends and I were full of piss and vinegar in 67, but by the time I went back in late 69 a lot had happened in this country in the intervening 22 months. I wasn’t the only one who knew it was going to end. Hardly anyone believed in the mission anymore, if there had ever been a mission, and the idea was to get through the tour without getting yourself or anyone else hurt unnecessarily.
As for Johnnie, I just consider him FR’s own comic relief.
Definitely recess appointment of a good person. Don’t pick some shining light above reproach, like Sen Danforth, to ride it out.
Also, can’t we make hay out of Dem crucifixion of the highest appointed Hispanic ever in Wash DC?
Thanks. This isn’t so much about you and me or Johnnie, as it is about Gonzales. I wanted to publicize the facts as we know them. The other thing about him is the DOJ’s efforts to prosecute border patrol agents. It reminds me of the DOD’s efforts to prosecute Marines and others involved with errors in the field. I wonder if it’s all coming from the same source. In any case, Gonzales is a good place to start pointing fingers. If there’s a way to force him to step down, it’ll show the administration that there could be something wrong with its strategy.
All these bad things started when Jesse Helms retired. He was the last keeper of the conscience.
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