Washington ? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came under renewed pressure Wednesday, as two more Republican senators came out against him and Democrats challenged his truthfulness about President Bush’s no-warrant eavesdropping program.

The developments revived a debate over Gonzales’ fitness to head the Justice Department a day after a former deputy attorney general recounted a dramatic hospital bedside confrontation between Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft.

Bush continued to stand by his longtime friend and adviser. “The president still has full confidence in Alberto Gonzales,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow.

However, the attorney general’s newly regained political footing in an appearance last week before a House committee seemed in doubt again.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that Gonzales in March 2004 – when he was Bush’s White House counsel – had tried to undermine the department he now heads by attempting to get Ashcroft to sign off on the warrantless wiretaps.

At the time, Comey – in Ashcroft’s absence – had refused to certify the legality of Bush’s eavesdropping program. Gonzales tried to go over Comey’s head by appealing directly to Ashcroft, who lay in an intensive care unit recovering from gall bladder surgery, Comey said. Ashcroft rebuffed Gonzales, Comey said.

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

“In light of Mr. Comey’s testimony yesterday, do you stand by your 2006 Senate and House testimony, or do you wish to revise it?” Democratic Sens. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Chuck Schumer of New York, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Dick Durbin of Illinois asked Gonzales in a letter Wednesday.

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

Unhappy with Gonzales, most Republicans have nonetheless refrained from calling outright for his resignation. Republicans who have urged his ouster include Sens. John Sununu of New Hampshire, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John McCain of Arizona, and House GOP Conference Chairman Adam Putnam, R-Fla.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who was chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the period Comey described, said Wednesday that Gonzales should consider stepping down.

“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,” Roberts said.