The Judiciary Committee was originally scheduled to vote today on Holder’s nomination as attorney general, but Republicans have objected. Holder confirmation delayed

Eric Holder’s confirmation vote before the Judiciary Committee will be delayed for up to a week as Republican senators continue to press him on his views about interrogation and other Bush administration intelligence methods.

The Judiciary Committee was originally scheduled to vote today on Holder’s nomination as attorney general, but Republicans have objected, and under committee rules they can delay the vote for up to a week. Holder was grilled last week by Republicans on his views about interrogations, Guantanamo Bay and his involvement in the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.


Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is seeking more information from Holder on whether the Department of Justice will pursue criminal prosecutions of "intelligence personnel" involved in detainee interrogations.

Holder declared that "waterboarding is torture" during last week's session in the Judiciary Committee. That statement raises the possibility that the government agents who used the method, which simulates drowning, could be prosecuted.

Holder said that the Obama administration does not want to "crimilinalize policy disputes" with the Bush White House during that hearing, but Republicans want a more firm commitment from the prospective attorney general.

"It could well be there will be a request to delay the markup for a week so those questions can be asked and answered," Cornyn said. "Part of my concern relates to his statements at the hearing with regard to torture and what his intentions are toward our intelligence personnel who were operating in good faith based on their understanding of what the law was."

Graham said Judiciary Committee Republicans were upset by the lack of "comity and witnesses" given them during the hearing.