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Judiciary Committee's top Democrat opposes Ashcroft

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Monday that he will vote against former Sen. John Ashcroft's nomination for attorney general.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy announced his decision on the Senate floor Monday afternoon.

"I wish the president had sent us a nomination for attorney general that would unite us rather than divide us, but that did not happen," Leahy told the Senate. "This is a nomination that had controversy written all over it from the moment it was announced. It surprised no one that today we find ourselves in the middle of this battle.

"It should surprise no one that the polls in this country show the American people are deeply divided on this nomination. It was, I believe, a crucial miscalculation for the president and his advisers to believe this nomination would have brought all of us together."

Leahy, however, has said he does not plan a filibuster to block a Senate vote on Ashcroft. Leahy had informed White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card of his decision to vote against Ashcroft on Monday morning.

Despite Leahy's opposition, Ashcroft is still expected to be confirmed as attorney general. Senate Republicans have remained united behind their former colleague.

In addition, several Democrats -- including West Virginia's Robert Byrd, Georgia's Zell Miller, and North Dakota's Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan -- have said they'll support Ashcroft.

Ashcroft is the most controversial of President Bush's Cabinet nominees. Democrats questioned him intensely over his opposition to abortion rights; his record on civil rights cases when he was Missouri's governor and attorney general; and his opposition as a senator to the nomination of a black Missouri judge to a federal judgeship.

Ashcroft defended his record in three days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Leahy led during the three weeks that Democrats held the narrow Senate majority.

A committee vote could come as early as Tuesday afternoon with a full Senate vote expected Wednesday, a committee aide said.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton also announced her opposition to Ashcroft's nomination on Monday, saying his record places him "on distant shores of American jurisprudence." The former first lady, elected as a Democrat in November, told reporters she also would oppose Bush's nomination of Gale Norton as interior secretary.

Democrats have stalled a vote on Ashcroft's nomination by submitting a list of nearly 400 written questions seeking to clarify his positions on everything from antitrust issues to abortion. And Senate rules allow any member to postpone voting for a week -- a privilege Leahy exercised last week.

In response, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, labeled some Democrats who have led the opposition to Ashcroft as "extremists" and called the Justice Department a "cesspool" that Ashcroft would clean up.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Kate Snow and Capitol Hill producers Ted Barrett and Dana Bash contributed to this report.


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Monday, January 29, 2001

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