JOHN ASHCROFT is the worst
Attorney General that President Bush could have selected. Well, maybe that's an overstatement, but he certainly does not seem to possess any of the qualities and virtues necessary to be a good Attorney General of the United States. His vigor in the battle against terror is honorable and worthy of respect, but his methods are frighteningly cold and detached from the ideas of federalism, religion, freedom and, ironically, justice. In the nearly two years the Bush administration has been at the country's helm, he has shown himself to be a rigid despot who does things his way regardless of the law.
Watch him in the post-September 11 news and he is presented as a stoic warrior fighting to protect innocent Americans from those who would attack them. But this is also the man who, if he had his way, would have made it legal for a man to rape his wife in Missouri. Defending Civil War Confederacy dogma, accepting an honorary degree at Bob Jones University (which at the time had banned interracial dating), inexplicably blocking the appointment of a black judge and supporting prosecution of women who get abortions for the charge of murder truly endeared him to the public. He did make advances in stopping racial profiling and that's certainly one promise he made to minorities that he hasn't reneged on.
The detention of alleged terrorists in the wake of September 11 has turned from part of a wartime protection act into the biggest racial mistake this government has made since the internment of Asians during World War II. America has made a great deal of mistakes regarding minorities, but to indefinitely detain more than 1,000 "enemy combatants" and refuse to charge them with offenses, forbid them to see lawyers and hold them for being "dangerous" is something about which the nation should be outraged. But if you think about it, this police-state restriction of due process for perceived threats is a good move. Anna Nicole Smith is a danger to rich old white men, James Traficant is a danger to anyone who's sane and Mark Warner puts a lot of jobs here at the University in jeopardy. So let's get Ashcroft to bust these offenders' butts down to Camp X-Ray for a great vacation in sunny Cuba's Guantanamo Bay spent in luxurious containment in a small cell with no windows and food which makes O-Hill look like cuisine for six days, seven nights -- or maybe eternity.
And who can forget Aschroft's stunt last fall when he threatened to withdraw critical prescription writing privileges from Oregon doctors if they participated in legal physician-assisted suicides. While his religious posturing is offensive in itself, the real problem is that he would go to the point of improper obstruction in state business. Apparently, the section in the Constitution on separation of powers was not taught at Yale in the 1960s. Luckily, the courts struck down this intervention into state affairs.
Last week, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected Ashcroft's guidelines for wiretaps and surveillance in the fight against terrorism as suggested in the USA Patriot Act. The bill was passed last fall -- and with a name like the USA Patriot Act, who could oppose it? Under the new bill, investigators may invoke surveillance laws when watching suspected terrorists is a "significant purpose," not the main purpose. Under such standards, anyone could be wiretapped and watched if they are "significantly" suspected. Apparently, warrantless wiretaps and Internet taps are part of Ashcroft's attempts to reduce the size of the government.
Now the guy seems to be doing the same things that made Janet Reno such a big target for Republicans. Richard Jewell, the innocent man accused of the bombing during the Atlanta Olympics, was savaged by the media for weeks. The FBI let the media make a pinata of Jewell despite their having no evidence against him and Jewell's life was changed forever despite his not having done wrong. There is a parallel situation occurring in 2002. The failure to catch the "Anthrax Killer" has been an embarrassment for the government. Leaks of the investigation led the media to descend upon scientist Steven Hatfill's apartment during two FBI searches. Hatfill claims that his girlfriend was mistreated and told that he had killed five people. Perhaps Hatfill did send the anthrax that killed those people; however, Ashcroft says there are many suspects and, unless he is withholding information from the public, it is irresponsible to allow leaks and then stay quiet regarding one of the biggest media stories in the past year.
Really, Ashcroft is George Bush's personal vacuum cleaner: He gets plugged in by the president and runs around relentlessly cleaning up the nation. He sees pro-choice activists, atheists and minorities and immediately sucks up their civil rights as if they were an unsightly stain on America.
All in all, perhaps the people from his home state of Missouri saw this coming and knew how to handle him. Missouri voters had a tough time picking candidates in the November 2000 Senatorial race and, ultimately, Mel Carnahan edged out Ashcroft despite the fact that Carnahan had died the month before.
I was never a huge fan during her tenure, but now I long for Reno.
(Brad Cohen's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at bcohen@cavalierdaily.com.)
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