Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales seen here at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, seems to be telling the committee - "This is how I want to slap them till they are brown and blue."

WASHINGTON – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., told Gonzales that policies he supported or helped formulate "have been used by the administration, the military and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel."

To emphasize his elevation and growing clout, Attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary committee "I will no longer represent only the White House. I will represent the United States of America and its people. I understand the difference between the two roles."

"America's troops and citizens are at greater risk" because of administration policies that are "tantamount to torture," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the panel's top Democrat. Even as they grilled him on administration policy on terror suspects, Democrats on the panel were generous in praising the man who would be the nation's first Hispanic attorney general.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush had "full trust" in Gonzales and hoped the Senate would "move forward quickly." Gonzales' nomination was widely expected to be confirmed by the GOP-led Senate.

A 1994 law, which is a joke in its actual implementation, is supposed to impose harsh penalties on those convicted of torturing prisoners. Also, Gonzales was the Ideological Architect Of Bush Administration "policy" of violating the Geneva Conventions. His work protects the American officials in Iraq, Gitmo, Afghanistan, etc. who have indulged whole-heartedly in torture from being exposed to the federal War Crimes Act - a 1996 law that carries the death penalty.