Gonzales 'no-confidence' motion to fail on party line vote

[Roland99]

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Gonzales_noconfidence_vote_to_be_party_0611.html

As Senate Democrats prepare to push a no confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales forward, a Democratic aide in the Senate said the party did not expect to reach the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture on a likely Republican filibuster to allow an up or down vote on the measure.

"We're working under the assumption that we'll get our side and none of the Republicans," the Senate Democratic staff member told RAW STORY Monday morning. "I'm almost certain it will be a party line vote."

President Bush and various White House spokespersons have dismissed the move, sponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) as a 'political stunt' with no prospects of passage.

Senator Schumer had earlier suggested that Senate Democrats would succeed in passing the measure, which states that the Senate has no confidence in the work of Attorney General Gonzales. He has come under fire for his mismanagement of the Justice Department in the wake of the firing of 8 US Attorneys.

Pissing into the wind...

[bryant69]

1. Is there something wrong with pissing in the wind?

Anyway it puts Republicans on display; or should I say it keeps them on display.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Roland99]

3. Well, nothing wrong if you like getting piss on your clothes.

[bryant69]

4. So I take it you think we should accept Republican dominence of our discourse? n/t

[Roland99]

7. Yeah, that's exactly what I think.

:eyes:

[Raven]

2. How are the Repubs who called for his resignation going to vote?

Pretty uncomfortable for them, isn't it?

[grasswire]

5. well, alrighty then

That's cool. He's theirs. We WILL hold this vote against them.

[Blackhatjack]

6. Once again our Senators failed to properly word the Resolution to win....

The Resolution should have been worded in the affirmative....

"It is the sense of the Senate that it HAS CONFIDENCE IN the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales."

Make the Republicans go to the floor and VOTE ON THE RECORD FOR that Resolution.

You can imagine the opposition campaign ads that would be run against Repubs up for reelection if they voted for this one.

[On the Road]

8. If They Had Done This IMMEDIATELY After Gonzo's Most Recent Testimony

they might have broken off some Republican votes. Forget vote counting and coalition building -- they had the momentum at one point and now have lost it. The extra time gave them the GOP breathing room to enforce party-line loyaties and for fence sitters to lose their outrage.

[VP505]

10. Exactly,

but as what's been typical the Senate Dem's come up a little late, AGAIN!

[Beelzebud]

13. It's what we're good at. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Liberal Veteran]

9. Geez! Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

I remember everyone pissing and moaning about the money for that war saying we should have stood up for principle and now they are having a vote standing up for principle and they are skewered for wasting time on a vote that can't win.

[Roland99]

11. This *is* wasting time. What would be the ramifications if it passed? NONE!

Where the hell is the bite?

They're all bark.

[leftchick]

19. None indeed

it was another empty gesture from the Dems. Now why the fuck don't they talk impeachment?

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Good. Then let those Republican Senators answer for that vote come election time. nt

[KoKo]

14. Won't be enough left of our country for folks to even come out and have vote

counted...if they aren't already disenfranchised by what Gonzo and Ashcroft before him working with Rove have done.

If Gonzo doesn't go then there won't be any Special Counsels to work on getting more of the Bush Crimes exposed...and the public will be dissed once again.

Gonzo has to go...but why are the Dems pushing for this now when a few more weeks of info coming out might have made the case even stronger than it is now...and that's saying alot because there's already so much evidence but if Repugs back down we look foolish. I hope there's something else afoot by crafty Dems that what it appears to be so far. :-(

[Liberal Veteran]

17. Sigh....a moment ago, people were bitching about it being too late for a vote

...now it's too soon?

And people wonder why I am becoming increasingly convinced that our democratic congress is going to criticized no matter what.

[tridim]

15. Anyone else get a sense that this is reverse psychology by the Dems..

to get the Republics to vote for it?

[Jim Lane]

16. I wonder if the rules allow attaching it to the next judicial nomination

It is, of course, amusing to see the Republicans resorting to filibuster, after all their bloviating last year about how a failure to hold an up-or-down vote on a judicial nomination was a threat to the very future of American democracy.

Still, putting their hypocrisy aside: If the no-confidence statement were attached as an amendment to approval of a judicial nomination, the Republicans could hardly filibuster that. If they filibustered the motion to amend, the effect would be the same. One of Bush's nominees would be bogged down in the Senate, only it would be by the Republicans' own doing.

[Elspeth]

18. But if they say they will filibuster, should Dems threaten the "nuclear option"?

No, of course, but you wonder what would happen if we did.

[newyawker99]

20. Hi Elspeth!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Elspeth]

21. Thanks!

:)