WASHINGTON — Two Senate Democrats said yesterday that they would seek a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Gonzales over accusations that he carried out President Bush’s political agenda at the expense of the Justice Department’s independence.

Senators Schumer of New York and Feinstein of California, who have led the investigation into the conduct of White House officials and Mr. Gonzales, said the attorney general has been too weakened to run the department.

Just when such a vote might occur in the Senate was uncertain.

Their announcement is the latest in a series of blows suffered by Mr. Gonzales this week, including new criticism from Republicans and the prediction of one GOP veteran that the investigation into the firings of federal prosecutors would end with the attorney general’s resignation.

Senator Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said yesterday that the Justice Department can’t properly protect the nation from terrorism or oversee Mr. Bush’s no-warrant eavesdropping program with Mr. Gonzales at the helm.

“I have a sense that when we finish our investigation, we may have the conclusion of the tenure of the attorney general,” Mr. Specter said during a committee hearing. “I think when our investigation is concluded, it’ll be clear even to the attorney general and the president that we’re looking at a dysfunctional department which is vital to the national welfare.”

His comment echoed new criticism of Mr. Gonzales this week. A former deputy attorney general, James Comey, testified that Mr. Gonzales tried to get his predecessor as attorney general, John Ashcroft, to approve Mr. Bush’s eavesdropping program as Mr. Ashcroft lay in intensive care.

Asked twice during a news conference yesterday if he personally ordered Mr. Gonzales and then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card to Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital room, Mr. Bush refused to answer.

“There’s a lot of speculation about what happened and what didn’t happen. I’m not going to talk about it,” Mr. Bush said.

The tale inspired Senator Hagel, a Republican of Nebraska, to become the fourth Republican senator to call for Mr. Gonzales’s resignation. Senator Roberts, a Republican of Kansas, joined in the criticism.

“When you have to spend more time up here on Capitol Hill instead of running the Justice Department, maybe you ought to think about it,” Mr. Roberts told the Associated Press.

The Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Leahy, who has not called for Mr. Gonzales’s resignation, agreed.

“I have absolutely no confidence in the attorney general or his leadership,” Mr. Leahy, a Democrat of Vermont, said.

Mr. Bush has stood by his longtime friend and adviser, the key to Mr. Gonzales’s hold on his job.

But just when some predicted that Mr. Gonzales had survived the furors over the firings, Mr. Comey’s testimony helped broaden the Democrat-led probe into whether the attorney general politicized the Justice department at the White House’s behest.

Mr. Gonzales has said only eight U.S. attorneys were targeted for dismissal. But the Justice Department, over nearly two years, listed as many as 26 prosecutors after concerns were raised about their performances, a senior government official familiar with the process said yesterday.

The Justice Department said it fully supports all of its current U.S. attorneys. The Washington Post first reported the list of 26 names yesterday.

Many of the names on various and changing lists of prosecutors under scrutiny “clearly did not represent the final actions or views of the department’s leadership or the attorney general,” said Justice spokesman Dean Boyd. He said the lists “reflect Kyle Sampson’s thoughts for discussion during the consultation process.”

Mr. Sampson, Mr. Gonzales’s former chief of staff, oversaw the review that drove the firings. He resigned in March as a result of the department’s botched handling of the dismissals.

The developments came as Democrats sought more testimony from current and former Justice Department officials. House Democrats announced that Mr. Gonzales’s former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, would testify next week under a grant of immunity.

At issue is whether the department, at the White House’s urging, tried to cause problems for Democrats by facilitating voter fraud cases and others involving corruption.

Mr. Comey ‘s testimony this week further weakened Mr. Gonzales among Republicans as well as Democrats.

According to Mr. Comey, Mr. Gonzales in 2004 pressured Mr. Ashcroft to certify the legality of Mr. Bush’s no-warrant eavesdropping program. The conversation took place at Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital bedside as the attorney general recuperated from pancreatitis.

Mr. Ashcroft rebuffed Mr. Gonzales, but the White House certified the program’s legality anyway. Faced with the resignations of Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller, Mr. Bush ordered the program be changed to accommodate Justice’s objections.

Democrats said his testimony appeared to contradict Mr. Gonzales’s account in February 2006, when he told two congressional panels that there had “not been any serious disagreement about the program.”

Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Gonzales’s testimony “was and remains accurate.”

Joining Mr. Hagel in demanding Mr. Gonzales’s resignation are Senators Sununu of New Hampshire, Coburn of Oklahoma, and McCain of Arizona, who is a presidential candidate. The House Republican Conference chairman, Rep. Adam Putman of Florida, also has called for a new attorney general.