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John Ashcroft -- The Best Man For the Job
(No. 3, January 11, 2001)

The following are recent quotes on President-Elect Bush's nomination of Senator John Ashcroft for the office of U.S. Attorney General.

"What you are seeing is the true face of the Democratic party. What you are seeing is them saying to a man, 'You are perfectly decent. Everything you have done has been within the law. You haven't harbored any illegal aliens. You've never left the scene of a crime. You've led an exemplary life, but we don't approve of your views. You dare to say that you are pro-life. You dare to say that you are opposed to reverse discrimination. And for that, you will pay. For that, we will make this experience something you will never forget.' I hope they do it, and I hope the American people watch it. ... If you want to see the haters, you will see them in these press conferences behind the attempt to kill the Ashcroft nomination.

"To John Ashcroft, this has to be like a Kafka short story. He wakes up one morning and all of his colleagues, his friends ... turn and say, 'You are a beast. You are beyond the pale.' This is the kind of stuff we're doing now in Washington."
(Empower America's Bill Bennett, "The News," MSNBC, 1/10/01)

"The activist Democrats shooting at Sen. John Ashcroft in his bid to become America's next attorney general have revealed ugliness about themselves - not the nominee. ...

"Again and again, for instance, I've heard Democrats ask repeatedly how Ashcroft can be pro-life and uphold abortion laws that largely support the abortion-rights agenda. In a view of the left, it seems, one's personal views will prevail when they are at odds with the law. ...

"Apparently these folks are so comfortable with using Cabinet offices to create law instead of to enforce existing laws and so content to see judges write new law instead of interpret existing law that they cannot fathom a responsible office-holder who will honor the rule of law ... .

"So what it may come down to for committed liberals is not outrage because of the mistaken belief that John Ashcroft or other Bush appointees would impose their own personal political views instead of the law: The outrage may really be over the fact that the left is no longer in a position to do any imposing."
(Betsy Hart, Scripps Howard News Service, 1/11/01)

" ... Nothing on the record suggests, never mind proves, that it was White's race that so vexed Ashcroft. The record, in fact, suggests otherwise. As governor, Ashcroft appointed blacks to political and judicial positions and, until the White episode, he enjoyed cordial relations with much of Missouri's African American community. He was hardly considered a racist. Yet that's exactly what CA Rep. Maxine Waters pasted him with."
(Richard Cohen, The Washington Post, 1/11/01)

"The Clinton coterie has been filled with individuals skimming along the edges of federal criminal investigations stifled in the current Justice Department, and have much reason to undermine any incoming Attorney General. ... The Democrats' problem with John Ashcroft is that he looks just like a fellow who might bring such cases back to life. ... Yes, some of Mr. Ashcroft's critics want to use his nomination to hyperventilate about abortion and the like. But there are also plenty of reasons Democrats do not want a vigorous Attorney General dedicated to the impartial pursuit of justice. The real threat to his nomination comes from those who seek to impede and obstruct justice."
(Wall Street Journal, Editorial, 1/11/01)

"... Just why is it that this defeat is so important to the gathering armada of special interest groups on the left: The case they make against the former senator, governor and attorney general from Missouri is so broad, so scattershot, it verges on the incoherent. In one instant, the opposition is philosophical; the next, it becomes a matter of temperament. Mr. Ashcroft is 'extreme,' we are told; he's 'religious'; he's 'moral' -- to the point, the New York Times rather ridiculously informs us, 'that he views morality as integral to good government.'

"Which makes one wonder: Does the left believe that the prospect of an attorney general who actually 'views morality as integral to good government' will send shivers down the spines of anyone other than crime families and certain alumni of the Clinton-Gore administration? ...

"In the name of tolerance, beginning with the successive revolutions of the 1960s, both government and society have effectively eliminated all such moral mechanisms. While there is no quick fix for restoring them, Mr. Ashcroft knows a simple place to start: 'We should take the hostility to morality out of the system,' he says. This is what makes the liberationist left quake. It is also what could make John Ashcroft a great attorney general, one which all conservatives should fight for."
(The Washington Times, Editorial, 1/11/01)

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