''It is the sense of the Senate that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people,'' reads a rare resolution of rebuke. "I can tell you that this senator has no confidence in Mr. Gonzales," Senator Bernie Sanders, a cosponsor of the resolution, told nationally syndicated radio host Bill Press in a Monday morning interview. "On issue after issue, he has shown disrespect for the Constitution of the United States."

Sanders said "the final straw" was a political purge of federal prosecutors pushed out of their positions because they were considered insufficiently devoted to using the immense power of the United States Attorneys offices to pursue a political agenda driven by the Bush White House.

Even before the firings, widespread abuses of wiretapping authority had caused serious concerns about Gonzales performance from senators of both major political parties.

Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose panel held hearings on the dismissals of prosecutors, has said he lost confidence in the attorney general. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the top ranking Republican on Leahy's committee, also was in the column of senators supporting the no-confidence resolution. President Bush has said he will ignore the growing unrest over his attorney general, and his loyalists in the Senate were poised to use parliamentary tactics to block a final vote on the resolution.