WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats are “not going to cut and run” from a battle over President Bush’s judicial nominations, the party’s leader vowed yesterday, adding that some Democrats regret not having blocked even more appointments.

“If they bring back the same judges we’re going to do the same thing,” said Senator Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Mr. Reid’s party blocked votes on 10 of Mr. Bush’s first-term appointments to the courts and confirmed more than 200.

Republicans have threatened to change long-standing Senate rules to strip Democrats of their ability to block votes, but Mr. Reid sounded a note of defiance. “Well, let them do it,” he said.

Mr. Reid made his comments in a joint interview with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi as they continued a pre-State of the Union attack on Mr. Bush and his agenda.

Ms. Pelosi, a California Democrat, accused the administration of using Social Security as a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from “other areas where they’re not having success.”

She and Mr. Reid have been sharply critical of Mr. Bush’s call for voluntary personal accounts as part of broader legislation to place Social Security on a more sound financial footing.

Mr. Reid said not a single Democratic member of the Senate favors using payroll taxes to create personal accounts. And Ms. Pelosi said any Social Security legislation “shouldn’t begin by slashing benefits.” Bush administration officials have said the president may recommend reducing the benefits guaranteed future retirees as part of his plan.

Ms. Pelosi said that Mr. Bush’s plan envisioned taking an “unconscionable, obscene, immoral amount of money to privatize” Social Security.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are considering filibustering Alberto Gonzales’s nomination to be attorney general over his role in developing the Bush administration’s policies on treating foreign detainees.

No final decision has been made yet, but at least two Democrats – Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts and Senator Durbin, the Democratic whip from Illinois – planned to urge the Democratic caucus yesterday to consider filibustering Mr. Gonzales’s nomination, said a Senate Democratic aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A filibuster, a parliamentary tactic for delaying Senate action, would require Republicans, who hold a 55 – 44 majority in the Senate, to win over at least five Democrats – or four Democrats plus Senator Jeffords, an independent of Vermont – to put Mr. Gonzales in office.

Democrats were surprisingly united in opposing Mr. Gonzales in the Senate Judiciary Committee, something that was not achieved when they voted on current Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Also yesterday, Democrats argued that Mr. Bush’s proposal to boost government payments to families of American troops killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and future war zones should extend to all military personnel who die on active duty.

Senator Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said that while he agreed with Mr. Bush’s plan to give those families an extra $250,000, the money should also “apply to all service members on active duty” who die and not just those who die in Pentagon-designated combat zones.

Officials with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines told the committee that the Defense Department should not give benefits to surviving spouses and children based simply on the geography of where a death occurs.

“They can’t make a distinction. I don’t think we should either,” said Admiral John Nathman, vice chief of naval operations for the Navy. Added General T. Michael Moseley, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff: “I believe a death is a death and I believe this should be treated that way.”

Under questioning from Mr. Levin, David Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the administration would work with Congress to determine the exact objective of the increased benefits. Right now, he said: “our premiere objective is to those fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The proposal, the subject of the panel’s hearing, includes retroactive payments to the spouses or surviving relatives of the more than 1,500 who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001.