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.