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A majority of Democrats in the Senate are ready to cast a symbolic vote of no confidence against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today, the Associated Press reports.

So far Republicans are offering meager support for the resolution and it’s unclear whether backers of the unusual manuever will even find the 60 votes needed to close debate on the resolution and bring it up for a vote.

No one is predicting that a symbolic resolution expressing no confidence in Gonzales will survive even the test vote Monday. Most Republicans are likely to vote no, dismissing the whole exercise as a ploy to embarrass President Bush.

But would a vote even embarrass the president?

“They can have their votes of no-confidence but it’s not going to make the determination about who serves in my government,” Bush said Monday. “This process has been drug out a long time. … It’s political.”

Whether successful or not, such a vote will at least bring discussion of Gonzales to the Senate floor after five months of Congressional inquiry into the Department of Justice and the firing of at least nine US attorneys.

The vote could be a final effort for Senate Democrats to oust Gonzales and show their commitment to the ongoing investigation.

“If all senators who have actually lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales voted their conscience, this vote would be unanimous,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who authored the resolution with Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif. “We will soon see where people’s loyalties lie.”

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