Clear and Present Danger James Ridgeway: “Democrats have the goods to sink John Ashcroft’s nomination. Now the question is whether they have the
guts.” The hottest property on Capitol Hill is two dozen boxes of “opposition research” painting a damning portrait of Ashcroft “entirely at odds with the bland, friendly image the ever-smiling conservative tries so hard to project”. The files were gathered by Democrat Mel Carnahan who unseated Ashcroft posthumously after dying in a plane crash during a polarized campaign. Village Voice
Democrats are eyeing a 1999 speech by John Ashcroft that may give clues to his lack of belief in the rule of law. New York Times Ashcroft appears to have been in his element, being given an honorary degree at Bob Jones University; here’s the text of the speech. Phil Agre comments:
“When the Constitution was written, religious conservatives opposed
it because, as everyone perfectly well understood, it did not create
a Christian nation. Their arguments sound more or less identical
to the arguments that their descendants make today, as for example
in John Ashcroft’s speech at Bob Jones University, enclosed. Having lost
that fight, the opponents of the Constitution now take a different
approach: they claim to have invented it. The evidence being so
overwhelmingly against them, they use bits and pieces of quotations
to dance around the Constitution’s straightforward assertion that
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It’s okay for them to hold
these opinions. That’s what we’re here for. What’s not okay is for
them to be placed in charge of enforcing the laws. Lately they have
taken to accusing John Ashcroft’s opponents of opposing him because
he believes in God. This is going to get worse before it gets better.” Red Rock Eaters’ Digest
Guilty by Association? “Ashcroft appeared in a 1997 video from Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum that portrayed the feminist movement, multiculturalism, reproductive
rights, gay rights, environmental concerns, global cooperation, and even chemical weapons treaties as part of a secret conspiracy to promote a
socialist One World Government and New World Order.
This type of conspiracist allegation is found in the right-wing of the Republican Party, the Patriot and armed militia movement, and the Far
Right. The use of language about cosmopolitan international financial elites shows insensitivity to the historic use of such phrases to promote
antisemitic claims of an international Jewish banking conspiracy.” Political Research Associates
And here’s some commentary by attorney and former federal prosecutor Edward Lazarus on The Proper Standard for Ashcroft’s Confirmation Fight: “If the Senate does reject Ashcroft,
no one should lose sleep over it. It would be poetic justice for a
man who deprived so many others of confirmations they rightly
deserved.”
Since I seem unable not to mention Gale Norton, interior secretary-designate, in the same breath as Ashcroft, the New York Times today reviewed her record of “declin(ing) to endorse high-profile laws with which she disagrees,” as Greg Wetstone, the national program director for
the Natural Resources Defense Council, nicely put it. Of course, one of her most egregious declarations was a 1996 speech that described the cause of states’ rights
as having suffered a grievous blow with the defeat of the cause
of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Dubya is certainly acting as if he has a mandate, isn’t he?
