时间:2019-02-07 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(五月)


英语课
By Jim Malone
Washington
17 May 2007

Democrats 1 in the U.S. Senate are taking the extraordinary step of seeking a vote of no-confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.  Gonzales is under fire for last year's dismissal of several federal prosecutors 2, which Democrats say was done for political reasons.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has the latest from Washington.






Alberto Gonzales


Alberto Gonzales



Gonzales is under renewed pressure from Democrats and even some Republicans to resign.


Critics point to congressional testimony 3 earlier this week from former Deputy Attorney General James Comey.  Comey testified about being present in a hospital room in 2004 with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was recovering from an illness.


Comey says then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card tried to get a barely conscious Ashcroft to approve a secret domestic eavesdropping 4 program as part of the administration's anti-terror efforts.  Ashcroft refused, citing the objections of Comey and others at the Justice Department.


Comey told senators it was the most difficult day of his professional career.


"I was very upset," he said.  "I was angry. I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man."


Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California are pushing for a vote of no-confidence on Gonzales.  Schumer says Gonzales is too weakened to lead the Justice Department.


"The most dramatic and searing revelation occurred when [former] deputy attorney general Comey testified, no question," he said.  "But every day another straw is added to the camel's back."


The no-confidence vote could come as early as next week.


Several Republicans have joined with Democrats in putting new pressure on Gonzales to step down, including Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.


"I believe that the Department of Justice is close to being dysfunctional now with an attorney general who is unable to perform the duties of that position," he said.


Comey told Congress that he and Ashcroft were prepared to resign in 2004 because of their objections to the domestic eavesdropping program.  President Bush ordered changes in the program to satisfy their concerns, and the program went ahead.  Comey left the Justice Department last August.


Reporters asked President Bush at a news conference on Thursday if he had ordered Gonzales and Card to go to Ashcroft's hospital room and obtain legal authorization 5 for the wiretapping program.


"There is a lot of speculation 6 about what happened and what did not happen," said Mr. Bush.  "I am not going to talk about it.  It is a very sensitive program.  I will tell you that the program is necessary to protect the American people, and it is still necessary because there is still an enemy that wants to do us harm."


Gonzales has been under scrutiny 7 for months over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.  The Washington Post reported Thursday that the administration may have considered firing as many as 26 of the 93 U.S. attorneys following President Bush's re-election in 2004.




n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )
  • The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
  • The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 ); 告发人; 起诉人; 公诉人
  • In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方,检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
  • You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。
n.证词;见证,证明
  • The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
  • He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。
n. 偷听
  • We caught him eavesdropping outside the window. 我们撞见他正在窗外偷听。
  • Suddenly the kids,who had been eavesdropping,flew into the room. 突然间,一直在偷听的孩子们飞进屋来。
n.授权,委任状
  • Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
  • You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机
  • Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
  • There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。
n.详细检查,仔细观察
  • His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好,但是经不起仔细检查。
  • Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。
学英语单词
abrasive band
action of controller
all-bright
aluminium ethide
ambiguous case
Anaset
bottlehead
canning burst
cat tree
Cerbolite
chainwale
chloralacetoxime
Cinchona officinalis
collect one's faculty
compaignion
contection
cotton braid
cowpooling
debituminize
disultone
DPICM
Dubky
duty-paids
eccentric type vibrator
environment control in biology
evasion chart
expansion fog
explicit faith,explicit belief
family peridiniidaes
ferl
fifty cents
file layout
fink on sb
fire banked
fixed ratio (fr) schedule
flying height
garp atlantic tropical experiment (wmo/icsu) (gate)
Genseric
geopartners
Glinus
gloom-and-doomer
Godhafoss
Gorno-Chuyskiy
hailwoods
high pressure piston
Hope, R.
hostitutes
i will wait for you
infective pleurisy
intramammary pressure
iodanil
islands
kante
Larzel's anemia
legitime
leycesterias
liberal interpretation
literaryisms
Mayer sign
micronized clay
murp
musculi pterygoideus
myological
natural frequency
negativas
non-shattering glass
not give a two pins
oghma
oil-depth gauge
over-played
paler
phosacetim
picciarelli
playing-cards
postwomen
Pound, Louise
productive task
pseudacousma
purely infinite
rear parking stop and direction indicator lamps
regional sea level change
resident editor
Safe High Voltage connector
San Isidro, R.
scatologia
single thread sizing
skiable
slot tear
sphenofrontal suture
splitter switch
spot weld adhesive
sticky prices
storage adapter
straight smile
string-oriented instruction
substitutions of amino acids
swormstedt
takao
tally trade
undersea tunnel
unfledged
work of deformation