By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said yesterday he would vote against Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft but would not support a filibuster to stop the nomination.
Leahy's opposition to a filibuster lessened the chance that opponents could successfully use delaying tactics to prevent confirmation of President Bush's most controversial Cabinet choice.
"John Ashcroft's unyielding and intemperate positions on many issues raise grave doubts both about how he will interpret the oath he would take as attorney general to enforce the laws... and about how he will exercise the enormous power of that office," Leahy told the Senate.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., also announced Monday she would vote against Ashcroft, telling a news conference, "His record and his views placed him on the distant shores of American jurisprudence."
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has said he's considering a filibuster, but Democratic floor leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota previously announced he would not support the tactic. Opponents would need 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to stop a filibuster, a delaying maneuver that is more commonly used to block legislation than a nominee for the president's Cabinet.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has said all 50 Republicans in the Senate would back Ashcroft and predicted Monday that 60 to 70 senators would support the nominee. The Judiciary Committee is expected to send the nomination to the Senate this week, and Lott said the chamber could vote as early as Thursday.
Leahy said Ashcroft holds extreme positions on civil rights, abortion rights, gun violence, gays and the role of judges. He also objected to Ashcroft's opposition to the nomination of the nation's first openly gay ambassador, James Hormel, and to a federal judgeship for a black Missouri Supreme Court judge, Ronnie White.
He said the nominee's opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, was far outside the mainstream.
In his confirmation hearings earlier this month, Ashcroft said a woman's right to an abortion has been upheld by the Supreme Court and he would not look for a case to overturn the rulings. He contended his opposition to White had nothing to do with race and said his arguments against Hormel were unrelated to sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, religious leaders in South Carolina appealed to Democratic Sen. Ernest Hollings to reconsider his opposition to Ashcroft.
The South Carolina Baptist Convention called on its members to flood Hollings' office with letters and phone messages to protest his decision.
