Senate majority has no confidence in Attorney General

June 12, 2007

As you may have heard by now, a majority of the Senate wanted to consider a resolution criticizing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, but Republicans had enough votes to obstruct the measure from receiving an up-or-down vote.

The Senate yesterday rejected a bid to conduct a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, as Republicans declined to defend the embattled presidential confidant but rejected the effort as a political stunt.

On a 53 to 38 roll call, Democrats fell seven votes short of the 60 needed to invoke cloture and begin the debate on a resolution condemning Gonzales. Seven Republicans broke with the administration and refused to support the attorney general.

Democrats had hoped their one-sentence, nonbinding resolution would be a step toward forcing Gonzales, under siege for the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year, to resign.

Here’s the final tally, with a list of how each senator voted on ending the GOP’s filibuster.

This may seem like quite a bit of fuss for a non-binding resolution, but yesterday was a fairly significant political showdown. There are a few angles to consider.

* Bipartisan opposition to Gonzales: One of the Dems’ principal goals yesterday was to divide the GOP and demonstrate bipartisan opposition to Gonzales staying on as Attorney General. They succeeded — seven Republicans broke party ranks and voted with the Dems to end the filibuster and consider the resolution (Coleman, Collins, Hagel, Snowe, Smith, Specter, and Sununu). Five of the seven are up for re-election next year.

* Majority opposition to Gonzales: It took obstructionist tactics, but the fact remains that, if given a chance, a majority of the chamber would have told the president that they no longer have confidence in the Attorney General.

* Lieberman: It’s not just foreign policy that divides Lieberman from his caucus anymore; yesterday he joined the GOP on this filibuster, too, putting him to the right of one-fifth of the Republican caucus. In a press release, Lieberman said he voted to support the filibuster because he didn’t want to spend more time on the issue. That’s a ridiculously weak reason — a vote on the resolution would have taken a few minutes.

* Filibusters: For the last few years, congressional Republicans would cry “obstructionism!” at the drop of a hat. Any effort to block a floor vote was outrageous, offensive, and possibly even unconstitutional. What mattered, more than anything, was preserving the notion of majority rule. To filibuster was to be literally un-American. In just the last few months, however, the Senate GOP has filibustered a non-binding resolution criticizing Gonzales, a minimum-wage increase, a debate over a non-binding resolution on the war (twice), and a bill that would have led to lower prices on prescription medication. All from the party that whined about non-existent obstructionism for six years. Funny how times change.

* Gonzales’ response: What’s on the mind of the embattled AG? Gonzales says he’s staying on the job — for the children. Asked about his focus, Gonzales told reporters yesterday, “You know, I’m focused on protecting our kids.” Won’t someone please think of the children?

* DC goes parliamentary: Part of the problem of this debate from the outset is the phrase “no-confidence vote,” which Republicans interpreted as some kind of parliamentary maneuver. If Dems had called it the we-want-Gonzales-to-resign resolution, it might have been a different debate. “This is not the British Parliament, and I hope it never will become the British Parliament,” protested Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.). “Are we going to bring the president in here and have a question period like the prime minister has in Great Britain?”

Of course, if the hope was to make Dems look like they were advocating a parliamentary system, Bush didn’t help when he told reporters, “They can try to have their votes of no confidence, but it’s not going to determine — make the determination — who serves in my government.”

Note to Bush: it’s not your government. That’s the kind of talk you hear in a parliamentary system.

As for the future, might Dems consider Gonzales impeachment? There’s very little talk of it this morning, but stay tuned.

Between this and the GOP/Conservative defense of Libby, I think we can now safely proclaim that the GOP/Conservatives have themselves forfeited any right, title or interest in the claim that they are the “rule of law” party.

  • Senate majority has no confidence in Attorney General

    Why should they? He lied under oath- to Congress , obstructed justice, doesn’t know what’s going on in his department and endorsed torture.

    I also have no confidence in the so called “Attorney General.”

  • Harry Reid whould strip Lieberman’s chairmanship and tell hime to go away. The dems can’t win any important vote anyway and Joe is a pain in tha ass.

  • Between his public wet dream of invading Iran and his vote here, Lieberman is daring the Dems to strip him of his committee assignments. I say, go for it.

    I also see no downside to impeaching Gonzo. A very public airing of his crimes/poor judgements would exonerate Dems of any ‘bitter partisan ‘ charge even if they fail to convict him. Do it.

    Also a note to any staffers from the Obama, Biden, Dodd camps: Don’t even think of hitting on me for cash. If I’m feeling polite, I’ll simply ask you to tell your bosses to go Cheney themselves. Skipping this vote was inexcusable.

  • Re all the filibusters we’ve seen… where the hell is any hard reporting about this? Every “showdown” over judicial nominees was covered breathlessly, with most stories containing one GOP spokesdemon or another spouting all that crap about the obstructionist Dems. Where are all the stories about the votes CB mentions here?

    Are political journalists that lazy? I know, I know.

    -Chief

  • I was pleased to see 7 Republicans vote with the majority, not pleased that neither Joe Biden nor Barack Obama voted at all, and disturbed this morning that the print reporting on this is being framed as though, having failed to get the 60 votes necessary to end debate, that not only did Gonzales survive the challenge, but that Democrats may not have the political strength to continue the investigation.

    This is the result I feared – that the inability to have a vote on Gonzales would give the impression that the basis for the investigation itself was weak, which would harden the WH’s resolve to stonewall subpoenas and requests for information.

    I will be happy if I see Leahy and Conyers come out swinging, and happier still when Gonzales’ “sprint to the finish line” comes to an end when he runs smack into a wall that is a special prosecutor with an invitation to meet with a grand jury.

  • “Are we going to bring the president in here and have a question period like the prime minister has in Great Britain?”
    wouldn’t that be fun!

  • If the reThugs had any belief or pride in our system of government, they would have responded differently to W saying “They can try to have their votes of no confidence, but it’s not going to determine — make the determination — who serves in my government.” Gonzales is actively damaging the integrity of the justice system in this country. And the reThugs know it, every single one of them. And yet they back up president 28% who is immeasureably harming their party’s future by his actions on almost every front. It is either pathological, Pavlovian, or else Rove has really nasty bits on every one of them.

  • The “my government” comment really bothered me – and I hope it bothered those in the other – co-equal – branches of government.

    It has to be said, though, that one of the reasons Bush views it as “his” government, is that for 6 years the Republican Congress allowed it to be.

  • “This is not the British Parliament, and I hope it never will become the British Parliament,” protested Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

    Interesting, Mr. Lott, I’d rather have the British Parliament than the German Reichstag anyday.

  • I was pleased to see 7 Republicans vote with the majority, not pleased that neither Joe Biden nor Barack Obama voted at all,

    My sentiments exactly. With 7 Republicans crossing the floor, the vote could have been 56 to 38, which plays a lot better than 53 to 38, I suspect.

    Dodd was the third dude who did not bother to show up to vote.

  • Trent Lott also complained that the Senate was wasting time on non-binding resolutions instead of passing actual laws. When’s the last time they actually did that? he wondered.

    Well, if Republicans had supported the immigration bill, for example, the answer would be, “Last week.”

    Further, Lott had the gall to lament the do-nothingness of Congress going back 3 years. Which must’ve been the Democrats’ fault, too.

    All that aside, there’s this bizarre sudden reluctance to spend time on non-binding “sense of the Senate” resolutions, like they don’t pass those every day.

    Here’s how Senator Lisa Murkowski defended her filibuster vote:
    “While I no longer have confidence in the Attorney General’s ability to do his job effectively, I could not vote in support of this non-binding resolution. Rather than expend valuable Senate time in a game of political theater, we should focus our efforts on the important issues facing the nation…”

    So instead of wasting time, she voted to extend the debate. We’re through the looking glass, people.

  • “Funny how times change.” Actually, it’s not funny.

    I heard an analysis on this morning’s Air America Young Turks Show (interview w/ former Congressman Micky Edwards, R-OK) in which it was pointed out how often, in the past, the majority party in Congress broke ranks with that party’s leader in the White House. Back when Congress had a spine and realized it was supposed to be co-equal with the President..

    Today’s Republicans have abdicated their official responsibility at every turn. They’re no more than lackey sychophants for the limp dicks whose stooge is Commander Codpiece, lickspittle toadies who dishonor our nation by their presence in it. I’ve been disappointed by the Democrats since they supposedly “took power” earlier this year, but Republicans are truly disgusting human beings.

    Perhaps when they, and Joe Lieberman, are finally driven back into their sewers next year we can get around to a series of reforms (public funding of elections, ending super-majority votes, e.g., not to mention an Edwards-Obama ticket) which whill return Constitutional democratic government to the United States.

  • Obama, Dodd and Biden should be ashamed of themselves. Very ashamed. Gonzales is a criminal, and he’s heading up the nation’s legal arm. Can it get more serious than that?

    I guess running for president is more important than acting like someone who might deserve to be president.

  • Prime Minister’s Questions it the best hour on C-Span! At what point did we become more uppity than Great Britian by the way? They question the PM and grumble and cheer at his or her answers. We put on a once a year gig where everyone important shows up and the President tells us what is in his pea brain.

    If we had Bush sitting in front of Ted Kennedy answering his questions the network covering that would have a 50 share!

    Your government, my ass Mr. Pres-dent!

  • Did people think he was kidding when he said this?

    I told all four that there were going to be some times where we don’t agree with
    each other. But that’s OK. If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier,
    just so long as I’m the dictator. -President-(s)elect Bush, Capitol Hill, 12-18-00

  • Just a thought. It seems pretty clear that the Senate reThugs are generally appalled by Gonzales and would prefer that he was gone. It seems pretty clear that pres 28% is dragging them down and they need to start separating themselves from him so they can win elections. Other than the fact that this would have given the Dems a “win,” wasn’t this the perfect opportunity for reThugs to vote yes on no-confidence and make a public stand for the rule of law and good government and separation from Bush. The public would have bought it, they hate Abu Gonzales too. After bush stuck his thumbs in THEIR eyes over immigration, why not stick him back?

  • IF the GOP/Conservatives really wanted to rehab their reputation, particularly at the expense of the Dems, they would bring their own articles of impeachment against Bush and Cheney. They could then claim they are acting in the best interests of the country AND shove the move in the Dems faces to claim, once again, that the Dems are just to soft (and pansies) to take a stand on anything they believe in.

  • Notice how this is written:

    The Senate yesterday rejected a bid to conduct a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, as Republicans declined to defend the embattled presidential confidant but rejected the effort as a political stunt.

    On a 53 to 38 roll call, Democrats fell seven votes short of the 60 needed to invoke cloture and begin the debate on a resolution condemning Gonzales. Seven Republicans broke with the administration and refused to support the attorney general.

    Democrats had hoped their one-sentence, nonbinding resolution would be a step toward forcing Gonzales, under siege for the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year, to resign.

    The writer provides Republican spin- Republicans didn’t just not vote for it, they rejected it as a political stunt- and Republicans don’t condemn Gonzales or vote no confidence in him, they break with the administration and refuse to support Gonzales.

  • * Gonzales : closet pedophile.

    * British Parliament : “.. protested Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.). “Are we going to bring the president in here and have a question period like the prime minister has in Great Britain?”. No, Mr Lott, it would be Nancy Pelosi. Harry Reid would be the equivalent of Baroness Amos, Leader of the House of Lords. The ‘President’ is in loco Regina [ the Queen], if you want to draw a comparison. So, what about getting your facts right before blabbering off, Lott?

  • Dunno when the Repubs think the opportune moment to pivot away from Bush will be…maybe sometime after Labor Day 2008?

    Meantime, here in the fringes of the Rust Belt I see the old New Deal coalition slowly being re-assembled – the urban and rural poor, and the disenfranchised.

    The rage of the white rural poor that the Repubs so skillfully orchestrated over the last 40 or so years with appeals to racism and wedge cultural and moral issues is shifting…things are so bad in the hollowed-out economies out here that it’s no longer enough to distract the voters with flag-burning amendments, the promise of late term abortion red-tape, and the specter of gay marriage, et al…rather their broken sons and daughters are coming back from Iraq after their umpteenth tours of duty and they don’t have the extra $60 to begin to fill the gas tanks on their pick-ups…

    The rage of the white rural poor is shifting from the usual suspects – away from the “liberal, cultural elites”…soon to be focused on their ungrateful Republican masters.

  • “This is not the British Parliament, and I hope it never will become the British Parliament,” protested Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.). “Are we going to bring the president in here and have a question period like the prime minister has in Great Britain?”

    Of course not, the last President who could have done such a thing has been out of office since January 20, 2000.

    Can one imagine Georgie No-Wits doing a question time like Blair does all the time???? The mind reels at the thought.

  • Wouldn’t it be revealing to reintroduce the GOP’s old measure to eliminate the filibuster, and see how many GOPers support it now?

  • Harry Reid needs to cut Lieberman fast, he’s worthless, and his committee has important and necessary work to do, especially in re., Katrina.

    Dems have got to start impeachment proceeding against Gonzo. They can honestly say they have been left with no other alternative since the Thugs wouldn’t even allow them a no-confidence vote. During the congressional hearing, which would be on tv all day, every day and most nights lead the news casts, it will be made clear how illegal the DoJ has gotten under Gonzo. The Thugs would not be able to filibuster a vote for impeachment at all. And it would force them to choose between the rule of law, or their President and party. With the malfeasance so much in the news, the people would be demanding they vote yes to impeachment.

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