U.S. & World

WASHINGTON (CBS News) ― The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday he will vote for a no-confidence resolution against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he's concerned like others in his party that the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and up for a test vote later in the day, was a Democratic effort to embarrass President Bush and prompt Gonzales to resign.

But Specter has long said that Gonzales has exercised poor leadership on a host of issues, from the firings of eight federal prosecutors to the department's handling of wiretapping authority under the USA Patriot Act.

"If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no," Specter said during a news conference in Philadelphia. "I'm going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales."

Gonzales showed no sign of stepping down, and Mr. Bush continued to support him.

"I am not focusing on what the Senate is doing," he said at a nuclear terrorism conference in Miami.

Despite Specter's decision and calls by five other Senate Republicans for Gonzales' resignation, no one was predicting that the symbolic no-confidence resolution would survive even the test vote Monday.

It's all about political symbolism, since only the president can decide if Gonzales stays or goes, CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports. A lot of Republicans are unhappy with Gonzales, but say this "no-confidence" vote is a stunt.

The big question is whether they will use the power of the filibuster to stop it. A procedural vote set for later today will determine whether even the debate on Gonzales and the U.S. attorneys scandal is going to be allowed to go forward.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recommended during private meetings early in the day that GOP senators not support the motion to proceed to a debate on the resolution itself, according to a source familiar with the talks who demanded anonymity because the discussions were private. Without the 60 votes, the Senate moves on to other legislation.

At a news conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe, the president made it clear that his support — probably the only reason Gonzales still has the job — hasn't wavered, CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports.

"They can have their votes of no-confidence but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government," Mr. Bush said Monday. "This process has been drug out a long time. ... It's political."

Still, few of the Senate's 99 members are rushing to defend Gonzales. What goodwill remained toward him after the firings of eight federal prosecutors over the winter seemed to fade after the attorney general told a Senate committee dozens of times that he could not recall key details. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., died last week.

Democrats say it's only right for senators to go on record, since five Republicans have called outright for Gonzales' dismissal and many more of the president's party have said in public comments that they have lost confidence in him.

"If all senators who have actually lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales voted their conscience, this vote would be unanimous," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who authored the resolution with Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif. "We will soon see where people's loyalties lie."

Even before the firings, Republicans and Democrats alleged widespread abuses of the USA Patriot Act's wiretapping authority by the Justice Department and the appearance that the traditionally independent law enforcement agency is being run too much at the White House's behest.

But GOP senators, including those displeased by Gonzales' conduct, have widely panned Schumer's no-confidence resolution as a political trick to shake Mr. Bush's continuing support for his longtime friend.

The resolution itself is only one sentence: "It is the sense of the Senate that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people."

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)