"I assume he'll accept our invitation," Leahy said. "It's an invitation at this point, not a subpoena."
For its part, the White House sent mixed signals Thursday. Spokesman Tony Snow did not back down from comments earlier in the week saying that White House officials would not negotiate, but he also said "the phone lines are still open."
"I think one of the things you need to look for in the next couple of days ... is let people think this through. This is not something that's going to be decided overnight," Snow said.
The cooling of rhetoric on both sides seemed to reflect a political calculation that each could be damaged if the confrontation were to proceed further and land in court. Courts have rarely intervened in such disputes between the legislative and executive branches of governments, and Democrats acknowledge that a legal battle could outlast the 22 months left in President Bush's term.
Democrats also are concerned that the dispute could backfire -- and that it is drowning out other issues that work to their advantage, such as ending the Iraq war.
The White House also may recognize that its hand is not as strong as it would like. Recent court cases have not fully endorsed the administration's expansive view of presidential power, and Bush has been politically weakened by Republican losses in November's election and the public restlessness over the war.
Moreover, the White House in general and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales in particular appeared to be losing support from some Republicans on Capitol Hill.
At the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, the administration's allies were unusually taciturn and eschewed taking a roll call vote that would have put them on the record as supporting the administration.
One of them, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, actually voted with the Democrats in favor of subpoena power and made a point of noting his vote in the record.
"I voted aye because I believe the sooner we get all these facts out, the better off we are," Grassley said, explaining that he thought the administration had been blocking legitimate information requests from both Republicans and Democrats.
Meanwhile, at a meeting about child abuse with prosecutors in St. Louis, Mo., Gonzales declared in perhaps his strongest language so far that he intends to keep his job.
"I'm not going to resign. I'm going to stay focused on protecting our kids," Gonzales told reporters.
He defended his two-year tenure. "If you look at the record ... it has been tremendous in the area of public corruption, in the area of going after child pornography. So the record ... has been extremely strong.
"I am committed to working with Congress to make sure that they have the information that they need to determine what happened here," he said. "We are working with Congress voluntarily. No United States attorney was fired for improper reasons. That's the message that I'm going to deliver to the United States Congress."
maura.reynolds@latimes.com
Times staff writer Richard B. Schmitt contributed to this report.
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