Dumb and Dumber
Democrats to push vote on Gonzales
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 53 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Majority Democrats in the Senate are forcing their Republican colleagues on the record about whether embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should keep his job .... No one is predicting that a symbolic resolution expressing no confidence in Gonzales will survive even the test vote Monday. Most Republicans are likely to vote no, dismissing the whole exercise as a ploy to embarrassIf all senators who have actually lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales voted their conscience, this vote would be unanimous," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., who authored the resolution with Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif. "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.
After watching Gonzo's performance at the Judiciary Committees' hearings, it is obvious to me that the guy isn't smart enough for the job--he'd be an embarrassement in any other administration. But Bush doesn't care about competence. Talk to the survivors of Katrina and Rita.