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Gonzales will have to wait to testify before lawmakers

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats postponed on Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' first chance to testify in his own defense over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

The decision to shelve next week's Senate Appropriations hearing frustrated the White House, which wants Gonzales to give his side of the story amid calls for his resignation.

But Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md, said the political firestorm should be resolved before Gonzales talks about the Justice Department's spending plan for next year.

"It would be very difficult in this environment to give the department's budget request the attention it deserves until the Senate has examined the department's leadership failures," said Mikulski, who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that had planned to hear from Gonzales next Thursday.

The delay means Gonzales won't appear publicly on Capitol Hill until April 17 - which even Republicans are calling a "make or break" date - to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the firings.

Democrats question legality of appointment

Democrats called for an investigation into whether President Bush acted illegally in appointing Sam Fox ambassador to Belgium.

"We view the recess appointment of Mr. Fox as a clear abuse of the president's recess appointment power," three senators including John Kerry, D-Mass., wrote in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.

They asked if Fox's appointment could be terminated if a Senate vote rejected him.

Education official sold loan company shares

A senior official at the federal Education Department, Matteo Fontana, sold more than $100,000 in shares in the parent company of Student Loan Xpress even as he was helping oversee lenders in the federal student loan program.

The Education Department said late Thursday that Secretary Margaret Spellings had just been briefed on Fontana and that the department was taking the matter "very seriously."

MySpace will hold presidential primaries

Social networking site MySpace announced it will hold a presidential primary on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2. According to ComScore Media Metrix, MySpace has 65-million monthly users, 85 percent of whom are 18 and older.

In a few weeks, it will conduct regular issue-based straw polls, with specific topics decided by users themselves, said MySpace spokeswoman Dani Dudeck.

[Last modified April 6, 2007, 00:37:00]