US Senate considers no-confidence vote in Gonzales

WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) US senators hoping to prod Attorney General Alberto Gonzales into resigning moved today toward a symbolic show of no confidence that President George W Bush called ''meaningless'' and is likely to fail.

Although a Senate vote of no confidence would have no constitutional force in the US system of government, Democrats want to shame the country's top law enforcement officer with an official demand for his ouster over his handling of the firing of federal prosecutors.

But Senate Republicans were expected to block the no-confidence vote, despite months of searing criticism of Gonzales from both parties.

The Democrats have a majority of 51 in the Senate, counting two independents who often vote with them, and it was unlikely they would gather the 60 votes required to get past a procedural hurdle.

Gonzales has refused to step down and is supported by the Republican president, who is his long-time mentor from Texas.

Bush, traveling in Europe, dismissed the Democrats' move as political, declaring, ''There's no wrongdoing.'' ''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,'' Bush said in Bulgaria, the last stop on a European tour.

''They can try to have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to determine - make the determination who serves in my government,'' Bush declared.

But Sen Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat sponsoring the no-confidence resolution, noted that calls for Gonzales' resignation had come from both sides of the partisan aisle.

''Just about everyone in America has lost confidence in the attorney general,'' Schumer said. ''If all senators who have actually lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales voted their conscience, this vote would be unanimous.'' Gonzales has endured months of criticism for allegedly mismanaging and politicizing the Justice Department. The attacks on him grew after an April Senate hearing in which he said many times he couldn't remember details of what had happened in the firings of nine US attorneys -- which critics portrayed as a politically motivated purge.

In May it emerged that Gonzales, as White House counsel, had tried to get a hospitalized John Ashcroft, his predecessor as attorney general, to continue a then-secret warrantless eavesdropping program.

Gonzales' critics saw that episode as further confirmation of his willingness to ruthlessly expand the powers of the executive branch of government.

A half dozen Senate Republicans have joined Democratic calls for Gonzales to resign, and others have also expressed doubts.

REUTERS DS RAI2314