Hmmmm. I see Ashcroft is a Yalie, which may explain why Dubya likes him. Skull and Bones? He's got a lot of other "issues",
>>Last year, black officials in Missouri criticized him when he led the opposition
to defeat a proposed federal judgeship for Ronnie White, the first black to sit
on the state Supreme Court. Ashcroft said White was too sympathetic to
defendants in death-penalty cases and too strongly in favor of abortion rights.
Carnahan and his allies plan to emphasize the White vote as part of their
effort to paint Ashcroft as racially insensitive, a strategy that infuriates the
GOP.
Meanwhile, Ashcroft's attacks against Carnahan also focus on the death
penalty and abortion. Anti-abortion legislators, who are a majority in the
Missouri Legislature, long have criticized Carnahan for his views. Last year,
they overrode Carnahan's veto of a bill banning "partial-birth abortion."
Carnahan said he vetoed the bill because it lacked a health exception and
because his legal experts believe its wording banned most abortions, even
early ones. The measure is now in court.
Then in January 1999, during the St. Louis visit of Pope John Paul II,
Carnahan agreed to honor the pope's request that he commute the death
sentence of a triple murderer, Darrell Mease. Ashcroft has sharply blasted
both of Carnahan's decisions.
The two men's disputes on the death penalty and abortion are tied, in part, to
their mutual efforts to appeal to, or assuage, Catholics -- who represent at
least a quarter of Missouri voters. The Catholic percentage is believed to be
even higher in the city of St. Louis and its suburbs. Carnahan needs strong
support from urban Catholics, who agree with him on some social-justice
issues. But many remain publicly upset over the partial-birth abortion fight,
and Ashcroft has made it clear he plans to keep the issue alive.
When Carnahan called on Ashcroft to return the honorary degree he
received from Bob Jones University, making note of its allegedly anti-Catholic
bent, Ashcroft replied that he would comply only if Carnahan returned all the
campaign money he had received from abortion-rights groups.
Black face, wars and videotape
But their biggest clashes have involved disclosures over their personal pasts.
Ashcroft has had to defend the seven years of deferments he received
during the Vietnam War years, his comments in Southern Partisan
magazine in praise of Confederate generals and his appearance last year at
Bob Jones University.<<
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