WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback grilled a judge who attended a same-sex union ceremony in 2002, but said he would no longer block her nomination.
Brownback, a Kansas senator who opposes gay marriage, last year held up the nomination of Janet T. Neff to be a federal District Court judge in Michigan.
The Senate Judiciary Committee had cleared Neff for the post, but Brownback had questions about her role in the same-sex ceremony, which surfaced because of a wedding announcement in The New York Times.
The senator said in December he would stop blocking her nomination if he could question her and get a roll-call vote on the nomination by the full Senate.
Brownback questioned her during a hearing Thursday. Neff said the ceremony, held in September 2002 in Massachusetts, was for the daughter of close family friends and her partner. Neff said she gave a homily, but did not preside over the service.
"But the ceremony itself, you would classify as what you would call a commitment ceremony?" Brownback asked.
"That is, I think, what it was called at the time," Neff said.
"And was it a marriage ceremony?" Brownback asked.
"It was not," Neff said.
Michigan has a state constitutional ban on gay marriage that prohibits recognition of civil unions or same-sex partnerships.
Asked whether she believes there is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, Neff said she could not answer, because the matter is pending in state and federal courts.
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PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful Bill Richardson asked members of the nation's largest firefighters' union Thursday to compare his labor record to his Democratic rivals' rhetoric.
"I've done it. I don't just say I'm for it: I've done it," the New Mexico governor said at an International Association of Fire Fighters convention.
"There are a lot of candidates who will come up and take a picture with you and make you promises, but when it's time to deliver, maybe they'll be with you. ... I'll always be with you," he said.
In 2003, Richardson signed a law requiring the state, cities, counties and school boards to negotiate with unionized workers. The law replaced one that had lapsed several years earlier.
"Those were dark, dark ages for us," said Emily Kane, president of the New Mexico Firefighters Association. After Richardson signed the law, wages for firefighters increased "to the point people are fighting to get into the departments," she said.
"When he takes office in 2009, my loss is going to be your gain," she told her peers from around the country.
Richardson said he also supported unions during his 15 years in Congress and as Energy Secretary, when he proposed a health care compensation package for union workers who built nuclear weapons. He said that as president, he would help firefighters by ensuring they have the equipment, training and protected pensions they deserve, and he also would appoint someone with a labor background as labor secretary.
"I want you to look in my eye: I will fight for you," he said.
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Part with his four beloved World Series rings? Not a chance, says Rudy Giuliani, presidential hopeful and lifelong New York Yankees fan.
"I do not intend to sell them. There is nothing anybody could offer me for them that I would take for them," the former New York City mayor told reporters Wednesday in Huntsville, Ala.
The Republican defended his ownership of the commemorative jewelry after The Village Voice reported that he has four diamond-and-gold rings - one for every world championship the Yankees won while he was mayor. Giuliani's name is inscribed in the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 rings.
The newspaper raised questions about special treatment for Giuliani and the price that he paid for the items typically limited to the players and members of the organization.
"I paid for all of them. I got them all after I was mayor. I have checks totaling about $14,000 to $16,000, I don't remember, paying for them all. I paid precisely what anybody else would pay," he said.
Giuliani said he had no plans to sell them, "which is the only thing that would implicate the idea that they might be worth more money."
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Long-shot Republican presidential candidate John Cox on Thursday asked a federal court to stop next week's GOP presidential debate unless he can take part, claiming in a lawsuit that the South Carolina GOP and Fox News Channel rigged their selection process to exclude him.
Ten candidates were invited to the May 15 debate sponsored by the South Carolina Republican Party and Fox. The 10 participated in last week's debate in California.
At issue is the standard the two organizations used to decide who could participate in the debate: requiring a candidate to earn at least 1 percent of support in state and national polls leading up to the early May deadline for registering in the state's primary. Cox's lawsuit claims his name was not used in the lone state poll that was used to gauge voter support.
Cox, a Chicago businessman, claims in the lawsuit that his rights will be violated and asks to be declared eligible for the debate.
The state party and Fox News had no immediate comment.
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Associated Press Writers Holly Ramer in Portsmouth, N.H., and Liz Sidoti in Washington contributed to this report.
