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DEMOCRATS FORCE WEEK'S DELAY IN VOTE ON GONZALES NOMINATION
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee complained today that attorney general nominee Alberto R. Gonzales failed to give meaningful answers to scores of questions put to him on issues ranging from the use of torture to the conduct of FBI agents. They forced a one-week delay in the panel's vote on his nomination. Panel members yesterday received more than 200 pages of written responses to questions they had submitted to Gonzales after his Jan. 6 confirmation hearing. But Democrats, led by Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said Gonzales avoided direct answers on many subjects. In response to several queries about documents, Gonzales said he was not aware of such material and had "conducted no search." In other responses, Gonzales said records "would involve deliberative material that I am not at liberty to disclose." Kennedy said, "These are very arrogant answers." But Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said, "The responses have been made to all of the questions, and it is a matter of interpretation whether they are comprehensive or responsive."
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