By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee forced a one-week delay yesterday in voting on Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft, with one panel member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, announcing her opposition to the nominee.
During a meeting that had been called with the intention of voting on Ashcroft's confirmation, the panel's top Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said Democrats want written answers to hundreds of questions before deciding on the former Missouri senator's fitness to join President Bush's Cabinet.
Feinstein, however, needed no further information to declare she believes Ashcroft has an "ultra right-wing" record on civil rights, women's rights, school desegregation and gun safety. His nearly 30-year record as state attorney general, governor and senator contradicts his stated commitment to enforce laws with which he disagrees, she argued.
"So the question each senator must now ask is whether this transformation is really plausible after 25 years of advocating on the other side," Feinstein said.
Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the postponement was the first such delay for a Cabinet nominee since at least President Carter's administration, and he chastised Democrats for asking questions about Ashcroft's private talks with members of his caucus and the GOP leadership.
"This represents, in my opinion, a dangerous and unprecedented intrusion into senatorial deliberations," Hatch said. "I have one thing to say, if we go down this path: Beware, senators, in doing your jobs."
Bush, in a yesterday morning meeting with the bipartisan congressional leadership, sounded unconcerned when asked about the Democrats' delay. "I think they're making sure that when they confirm him, all questions have been answered," the president said.
Leahy and other Senate Democrats were reluctant to proceed on Ashcroft's nomination because they were awaiting documents and answers to written questions, many of which were not sent to Ashcroft until Monday evening.
Hatch had scheduled a meeting for Wednesday with the intent of voting to send Ashcroft's nomination to the full Senate. Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., had hoped to bring the nominations of Ashcroft and Gale Norton - Bush's choice for secretary of the interior - to the floor early next week.
Committee votes typically are delayed until White House nominees have answered written questions from the panel's members, Hatch spokeswoman Jeanne Lopatto acknowledged. But she said the number of questions sent to Ashcroft - more than 260 in all, with 126 of them from Leahy - is unprecedented, "especially for someone who testified for two days and is a former colleague."
"I also know that Senator Ashcroft is working furiously to get responses back to the committee," she said.
Among the documents are FBI financial reports, several speeches and a complete videotape of Ashcroft's 1999 commencement address at Bob Jones University, a conservative Christian institution whose leaders have labeled the Roman Catholic Church a "satanic cult." Until recently, the school also banned interracial dating.
Numerous liberal interest groups - including the NAACP, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the civil liberties group People for the American Way - are pressuring Democrats to oppose Ashcroft's nomination. Critics insist the deeply held convictions of the conservative former Missouri senator, a staunch opponent of abortion and gun control, might prevent him from enforcing laws with which he disagrees.
But even his Democratic opponents predict Ashcroft will be confirmed. No Republicans in the evenly divided Senate have expressed opposition and several Democrats have said they'll support him. They include West Virginia's Robert Byrd, Georgia's Zell Miller and North Dakota's Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan.
On Tuesday, People for the American Way delivered petitions to Capitol Hill with more than 150,000 signatures collected from its anti-Ashcroft Web site. It plans a $250,000 newspaper advertising campaign this week. Abortion rights groups are running radio ads and Internet campaigns.
