U.S. Senate panel to vote on Sen. John Ashcroft

U.S. Senate panel to vote on Sen. John Ashcroft

WASHINGTON (Reuters): As Democrats stepped up their opposition to conservative former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft, a Senate panel on Tuesday was slated to vote on his nomination to be U.S. attorney general.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was expected to send the full Senate the nomination of Ashcroft, a hero of the Christian right who has been President George W. Bush's most contentious Cabinet pick, and the Senate was likely to take up the debate later in the day.

Even if there is a deadlock in the Judiciary Committee, which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats to reflect the 50-50 Senate split, Republican leader Trent Lott will be able to advance the nomination under Senate rules.

Most of Bush's Cabinet choices have sailed through the confirmation process, with all but Ashcroft expected to be confirmed by the middle of this week.

While Democrats leveled charges that Ashcroft is too rigid in his moral beliefs to enforce the nation's laws as attorney general, Lott said he was confident the full Senate will approve him.

Lott, of Mississippi, said he expected solid support from his fellow Republicans as well as from several Democrats to put Ashcroft over the top. "I've always thought it would be between 60 and 70" votes for Ashcroft, Lott told reporters.

He said he hoped Ashcroft would be confirmed before the Senate recesses on Thursday for a weekend retreat of congressional Republicans.

Senate Democrats, decrying Ashcroft's stances including opposition to abortion rights and gun controls, said they wanted a full debate that could push the final vote into next week. But prospects for a parliamentary move by Democrats to block the confirmation appeared to be dimming.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking Judiciary Democrat, said on Monday that while he will vote against Ashcroft, he did not plan a filibuster and would not support one.

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota also has said he would not support the parliamentary move.

But Leahy chided Bush for pushing the contentious nomination which he said will only worsen divisions after November's excruciatingly tight presidential and congressional elections.

While Ashcroft has testified he would enforce laws he did not agree with, such as a woman's right to an abortion, Leahy said his "unyielding and intemperate positions on many issues" raised doubts about how he would exercise the power of the attorney general's office.

On Monday, New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton joined Leahy in publicly opposing Ashcroft, saying "his record and his views place him on the distant shores of jurisprudence, not in the mainstream of New York and American convictions."

Meanwhile the liberal activist group People for the American Way, which has led a petition drive against Ashcroft, was to run full page ads on Tuesday in 11 major newspapers across the country to fight the confirmation.