It is about time.

WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Thursday to confirm White House counsel Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, setting aside Democratic complaints he helped craft questionable U.S. policies on the treatment of foreign prisoners.

Gonzales, 49, a longtime friend who was President Bush’s legal counsel when he was governor of Texas, became the first Hispanic to be the nation’s top law officer when Vice President Dick Cheney swore him in shortly thereafter in the vice president’s office in the West Wing of the White House.

The vote was 60-36, with all the opposition coming from Democrats. The “no” votes were the second most ever lodged against a successful nominee for attorney general. John Ashcroft, whom Gonzales succeeds, was confirmed 58-42 on Feb. 1, 2001.

“This is a breakthrough of incredible magnitude for Hispanic-Americans,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., calling Gonzales “a role model for the next generation” of Hispanics in this country

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said he expected Gonzales, a former Texas judge, “to help lead the way for the creation of an America that despises hate and bigotry and recognizes that every human being deserves a government that will fight for the dignity and equality of all.”

Other Democrats opposed Gonzales, accusing him of being evasive in his answers to their questions about White House policies in the war on terrorism.

“He was so circumspect in his answers, so unwilling to leave a micron of space between his views and the president’s, that I now have real doubts whether he can perform the job of attorney general,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

“In short, Judge Gonzales still seems to see himself as counsel to the president, not attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of the land,” Schumer continued. (ed. emphasis added)

Translation: He wasn’t willing to back down from what he believed in. Sorry Charlie.