Senate Ratifies Attorney General

After strong protest from Democrats, the Senate voted 60 to 36 Thursday to confirm the nomination of Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general -- the smallest margin for confirmation of any of President Bush’s second-term Cabinet choices.

Less than two hours later, Gonzales was sworn in to office by Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House after receiving a congratulatory phone call from Bush, who was traveling.

Gonzales, 49, who rose from near poverty to serve in the White House for four years as counsel to the president, is the first Latino to become the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

Senators are usually deferential to a president’s choice of advisors, and most Cabinet nominations are approved by a voice vote. Since Bush took office in 2001, only one Cabinet nominee has been approved by a smaller margin -- Gonzales’ predecessor as attorney general, John Ashcroft, who was approved 58 to 42 four years ago.

Only one of Bush’s second-term Cabinet picks remains to be confirmed: Michael Chertoff, nominated as secretary of Homeland Security. The Senate is expected to take up his nomination sometime next week.

Many Democrats had initially said they were inclined favorably toward Gonzales, whose mild manner was seen as a welcome change from Ashcroft’s sometimes abrasive demeanor and whose rags-to-riches biography was described as inspirational.

The son of onetime migrant workers of Mexican descent, Gonzales was raised with his seven siblings in a two-bedroom house in Houston. He graduated from Rice University and Harvard Law School, and became a partner in a prominent Houston firm.

When Bush became governor of Texas in 1995, he named Gonzales as his general counsel. Bush later appointed him Texas secretary of state and then as a judge on the state Supreme Court before bringing him to Washington as White House counsel in 2001.

Opposition to Gonzales as attorney general grew during his confirmation hearings last month, when he gave what Democrats described as evasive and equivocal answers to questions about his role in administration memos that appeared to condone the use of some types of torture against suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democrats also argued that Gonzales was too close to the president to be an independent arbiter of the law.

During his confirmation hearings, Democrats said, Gonzales appeared to suggest that in some circumstances the president had the right to order people under his command to violate the law.

“Embodying the American dream is not sufficient reason to serve as attorney general,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in the Senate before the vote. “The attorney general of the United States is the people’s lawyer, not the president’s lawyer.”

Republicans bristled at the criticism, saying that Gonzales had publicly repudiated torture many times.

“I know Judge Gonzales and he is being unfairly criticized,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Judge Gonzales has made it clear that no one, including the president, is above the law.”

Democrats railed against a memo commissioned by Gonzales that appeared to condone “harsh” treatment of prisoners that many members of Congress, including a number of Republicans, believed contributed to abuses. The administration did not repudiate the memo until a few weeks ago.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) accused Gonzales of playing a role in “establishing the legal framework that set the stage for the torture and mistreatment of persons in the United States’ custody.”

“Prisoner abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have deepened the anger and resentment that some feel toward our country and have given a propaganda club to our enemies,” Levin said before the vote.

Sen. Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, one of the few Democrats who voted to confirm Ashcroft in 2001, said that the attorney general must be prepared to operate independently of the president and that his “ultimate allegiance must be to the rule of law, not to the president.”

“I am pained to say ... [that] Mr. Gonzales’ performance as White House counsel, and particularly his appearance before the Judiciary Committee and his responses to our questions, have given me grave doubts about whether he meets that test,” Feingold said. “Judge Gonzales too often has seen the law as an obstacle to be dodged or cleared away in furtherance of the president’s policies.”

Although the opposition to Gonzales was strong, Democrats did not attempt to use the strongest tool in their parliamentary arsenal, the filibuster, because they did not have the 41 votes needed to keep Republicans from overriding it.

Six Democrats -- most from states that voted for Bush in November -- joined 54 Republicans in favor of Gonzales’ confirmation.

One of those Democrats was Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana.

“Judge Gonzales’ involvement in crafting some policies that many people find objectionable, including myself, weighed on my mind as I considered his nomination to the office of attorney general,” she said after the vote.

“But I voted today to support him with the hope and trust that as he moves from serving as the president’s lawyer, he will draw on his years of experience as a lawyer and judge to execute his new duties with the commitment to even-handed justice and American values the people expect of their representative.”

Another was Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), one of the Senate’s two Hispanic members, who was elected in November. On the floor of the Senate, he criticized Republicans for “playing the race card” by accusing Democrats of extending debate over Gonzales because of his ethnic background.

“My colleagues who have stood up and who have raised questions about Judge Gonzales’ role with respect to [torture] -- they have been carrying out their constitutional duty, and I believe that constitutional duty should be respected,” Salazar said.

As for his “yes” vote, Salazar said he reached his decision “after doing my constitutional duty of reviewing the record, meeting with Judge Gonzales, talking to him about civil rights, [and] talking to him about his opposition to torture.”

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How they voted

The Senate voted 60 to 36 to confirm Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general.

Yes: Fifty-four Republicans and six Democrats voted for confirmation. The Democrats were Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ken Salazar of Colorado.

No: Thirty-five Democrats and one independent, James M. Jeffords of Vermont, opposed confirmation.

Not voting: Four senators did not vote. They were Republican Conrad Burns of Montana and Democrats Max Baucus of Montana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii.

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Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times