WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats are under intense pressure to interrogate the nominee for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, in his confirmation hearings Thursday about his role in shaping the Bush administration’s detainee policies, and to link him with the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

But they are also being urged to respect his place in history as the first Hispanic nominated to be attorney general, after an election in which President Bush’s popularity among the nation’s largest ethnic group reached a record high.

“The statements have to be carefully drawn. It has to be the issues they oppose, not the individual,” said the president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California, Harry Pachon.

Mr. Pachon said he has noticed “much less opposition” among Hispanics to Mr. Gonzales than to other Bush administration appointments.

This puts Democrats “behind the 8-ball,” he said. “If they criticize too much, the administration is going to make it very publicized,” said Mr. Pachon, whose nonpartisan institute has not taken a position on the nomination.

Mr. Gonzales’s appointment has drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups for a memorandum he wrote to the president in 2002 stating that the protections of the Geneva Convention were rendered “obsolete” by the war on terrorism.

In a 20-page report issued yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union described Mr. Gonzales’s record on civil rights and civil liberties as “not encouraging” and called for close scrutiny of his past actions. The group added that his appointment presents a potential conflict of interest should evidence emerge that he played a direct role in authorizing highly coercive interrogation techniques of detainees.

“Gonzales would be in the hugely awkward position of having to authorize a criminal investigation against himself or his close political allies,” the report said.

Also yesterday, a group of retired admirals and generals issued a letter expressing their “deep concern” about his nomination, urging senators to question him about the “significant role” he played in shaping American detention and interrogation policies in Afghanistan and Iraq. They claim those policies have undermined intelligence efforts and “added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world.”

But even as those criticisms emerged, Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee tasked with questioning the Texas native signaled they would take differing approaches to Thursday’s confrontation.

Senator Schumer has said he expects the nomination to go through without acrimony, and he has not dwelled on the detainee issues.

“We’re eager to hear what he has to say. To me, a key criteria will be his attitude on judges,” Mr. Schumer said yesterday.

“Will he work nationally the way he worked with me in New York, where together we have filled every vacancy with moderate or conservative – but mainstream – judges?” Mr. Schumer said in an e-mail statement. He referred to a 2003 bipartisan agreement that led to the filling of all vacancies on New York’s federal bench.

In contrast, the senior Democrat on the committee, Senator Leahy of Vermont, has said he will press Mr. Gonzales on the abuses and has accused Mr. Gonzales of withholding relevant documents.

“The scandal of Abu Ghraib, allegations of mistreatment at Guantanamo, and investigation and charges from cases in Iraq and Afghanistan are serious matters with lingering questions and unresolved accountability in their wake,” he said.

There is already wariness among some Hispanic groups about the focus on Mr. Gonzales.

“If he happened to be one of many actors supporting the Bush policies, it would be unfair to blame the policies on one guy, especially when he is the first Hispanic nominated to this position,” said the national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Brent Wilkes.

“I would hate to see a lot of flack directed at him,” said Mr. Wilkes, whose group supports the nomination.

Mr. Wilkes noted that Mr. Gonzales has taken more liberal positions on issues such as abortion rights and affirmative action than other members of the administration.

“From my perspective, Gonzales is the more moderate voice within the administration. [Democrats] have to show that is not the case. …I don’t think they are going to be able to do that,” he said.

Mr. Gonzales’s is one of a string of high-profile Latinos and Hispanics appointed by Mr. Bush since he took office in 2000 – doubling the rate of Hispanic appointments under President Clinton’s administration to 10% from 5%, by Mr. Wilkes’s count.

Such outreach helped Mr. Bush push his share of the Hispanic vote to a record high for a Republican candidate, to the high 30s or even 44%, according to various estimates.

To some in the community, Mr. Gonzales’s nomination carries special significance, Mr. Pachon said.

“Many Hispanics welcome the fact that he has been nominated for a position that is contrary to what people would expect a Latino to be nominated for,” he said. “It is not a social service department.”

But while the nomination is “truly historic,” senators need not pull their punches, said the executive director of National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Arturo Vargas.

“Senators should not necessarily do their job based on how any group would react. They need to judge an individual on his or her merits. That is how he would want to be evaluated,” he said.

Mr. Vargas doubted that Democrats’ treatment of Mr. Gonzales would affect them at the polls.

“I think we should give Latino voters a certain amount of credit. …They have a deeper sense of politics than this as a litmus test,” he said.