Republican senators blocked a no-confidence vote in Congress on US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, rejecting a symbolic Democratic effort to force him from office amid blistering criticism from lawmakers in both parties.
The 53 to 38 vote on Monday to move the resolution to full debate fell seven short of the 60 required. In bringing the matter up, Democrats dared Republicans to vote their true feelings about an attorney general who has alienated even the White House's strongest defenders by bungling the firings of federal prosecutors and claiming not to recall the details.
Republicans did not defend him, but most voted against moving the resolution ahead.
Monday's vote was not the end of scrutiny for Gonzales and his management of the justice department -- more congressional hearings are scheduled and an internal department investigation continues.
Short of impeachment, the US Congress has no authority to oust a Cabinet member, but Democrats were trying anew to give him a push. Gonzales dismissed the rhetorical ruckus in the Senate, and US President George W. Bush continued to stand by his longtime friend and legal adviser.
"They can have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government," Bush said in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe.
The attorney general said he didn't plan on leaving anytime soon.
"I am focused on the next 18 months and sprinting to the finish line," Gonzales said as he met on Monday with child advocates in a poor Alabama neighborhood.
In the Senate, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to advance the no-confidence resolution.
Even before the controversy over fired prosecutors, lawmakers of both parties complained that Gonzales allowed Justice to violate civil liberties on a host of other issues -- such as implementing Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.
One veteran Republican said Gonzales had used up all his political capital in the Senate.
"There is no confidence in the attorney general on this side of the aisle," said Arlen Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Specter voted to move the resolution forward, but he said many of his Republican colleagues would not because they feared political retribution.
Democrats said it was only fair to put senators on record for or against Gonzales, particularly since five Republican senators have called for the attorney general's resignation and many more have said they have lost confidence in him.
Chief sponsor Charles Schumer urged the senators to vote their true feelings.
"If senators cast their vote with their conscience, they would speak with near unanimity that there is no confidence in the attorney general," the Democratic senator said.
"He deserves to be fired," Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said.
Whatever Gonzales may or may not deserve, some Republicans said, it is not the Senate's job to hold forth on a member of the president's Cabinet.
"This is a nonbinding, irrelevant resolution proving what? Nothing," Republican Senator Trent Lott said. "Maybe we should be considering a vote of no confidence on the Senate or on the Congress for malfunction and an inability to produce anything."
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