WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate Monday began debate on the nomination of Michael Chertoff to become secretary of Homeland Security Department.
It's the ninth and last of President Bush's bevy of new cabinet replacements for his second term, and the upper House of Congress is expected to approve Chertoff's nomination Tuesday.
Although Chertoff's approval is nearly certain, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, led Democratic criticism of the nominee.
Levin continued his and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Joseph Lieberman's, D-Conn., criticisms. They centered on the Justice Department's withholding of classified documents related to Chertoff's tenure at the agency heading terrorism prosecutions.
On the Republican side, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, praised Chertoff's willingness to leave his current lifetime appointment as a federal judge to take over the massive DHS agency.
