Senate Republicans Monday blocked a Democratic vote of "no confidence" in besieged US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sparing President George W. Bush another political hammer blow.
Majority Democrats however claimed they had taken another step towards forcing the ouster of Gonzales, as Bush travelled home from a trip to Europe to be greeted by several new political brushfires.
"We have taken another step forward," said senior Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who pointed out that few Republicans rose to support Gonzales, one of Bush's longest standing political confidants.
"Where are the voices saying Gonzales should stay? Where in the Senate, where in the country, where in the legal community? It is amazing to me that President Bush keeps him on," Schumer said.
Fifty-three senators voted to move to a final vote on the non-binding resolution, seven short of the total needed under Senate rules to keep the measure alive. A total of 38 senators voted against the measure, sparked by the drama over the firing on federal prosecutors.
The failure of the resolution to move on meant Bush escaped another political bruising, days after a landmark immigration bill, one of his last hopes for a big domestic second term achievement, was shelved in the Senate.
The president was due to hold an unusual luncheon meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday, to try to revive the measure, intended to give 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
The symbolic text, which simply stated that Gonzales "no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people," was earlier lambasted by Bush as "meaningless" and politically motivated.
Seven Republicans voted against Gonzales on the non-binding resolution sparked by a political maelstrom over the firing of eight federal prosecutors which critics said was politically motivated.
Before leaving Europe, Bush had
criticized the motion.
"They can try to have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to determine who serves in my government," the president said in Bulgaria.
"I'll make the determination if I think he's effective, or not, not those who are using an opportunity to make a political statement on a meaningless resolution."
Gonzales, who heads the US Department of Justice, faces calls to resign over allegations he fired federal prosecutors last year for purely political reasons to benefit Bush's Republican party. He has denied the charges.
A handful of prominent Republicans, including Chuck Hagel and John McCain, have said Gonzales should resign or be fired. Hagel voted for the resolution, along with another prominent Republican Senator, Arlen Specter.
"Have I lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales? Absolutely yes," said Specter.
McCain, a 2008 presidential candidate, did not vote.
Though the resolution fell, Democrats still forced Republicans to side with the unpopular president, a dicey political spot as congressional and presidential polls loom in 2008.
"This is a very disappointing spectacle here today," said Republican minority whip Senator Trent Lott.
"This is not the British parliament, are we going to bring the president in here and have a question period like the Prime Minister has in Great Britain?"
Gonzales spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said after the vote the attorney general would concentrate on doing his job, securing the United States, fighting gangs and drugs and shielding children from pedophiles and predators.
A former White House counsel, Gonzales is also intimately linked to some of the most controversial legal moves of the Bush presidency, including a decision that terror suspects were not covered by the Geneva Conventions on the rights of prisoners of war.
The row over federal prosecutors began in March when evidence from emails and testimony from a top former Department of Justice aide linked Gonzales to the sackings.
The department has offered several explanations for the firings, and the attorney general himself angered lawmakers by insisting in testimony that he "can't recall" key aspects of the firings and his role in them.
