Today's NYT on (cough) Ashcroft:
December 26, 2000
Bumps Ahead for Bush's Justice
Department Pick
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, Dec. 25
— Democratic senators
and liberal interest groups warned
today that Senator John Ashcroft,
President-elect George W. Bush's
choice for attorney general, faces a
fierce nomination fight over his
positions on issues like civil rights
and abortion rights.
No senator has yet publicly
opposed Mr. Ashcroft's selection
to be the nation's chief legal
officer, and liberal groups concede
that they face an uphill battle in
persuading the Senate to reject
one of its soon-to-be- former
members from joining Mr. Bush's
cabinet.
Nonetheless, many of the same
members of the liberal coalition
that defeated the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork in 1987
are scrambling to mount an aggressive campaign against Mr. Ashcroft. At
stake, opponents argue, are everyday considerations from privacy rights
and constitutional freedoms, to whether Mr. Ashcroft's anti-abortion
position will interfere with his ability to enforce federal laws protecting
abortion rights.
Beyond the immediate issue of Mr. Ashcroft's ability to serve as attorney
general, some Democrats said, a fight at his confirmation hearings will
help mobilize for future battles core party supporters still energized by the
Florida recount battles.
The focus, though, will be Mr. Ashcroft's performance as attorney
general and governor of Missouri and as United States senator since
1995.
"We're going to take a very careful look at his record, and if it's as bad
as I fear it is, we'll strongly oppose him," said Judith L. Lichtman,
president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, a liberal
advocacy group.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the
Judiciary Committee, which oversees confirmation of the attorney
general, said on Sunday that Mr. Ashcroft's nomination was not at all
assured in a Senate that will be split 50-50.
"I intend that it will be a fair hearing," Mr. Leahy said on ABC's "This
Week." He added: "That does not mean it will be a pushover hearing.
There will be tough questions."
Since Mr. Bush announced on Friday his selection of Mr. Ashcroft, the
Missouri senator, who was defeated last month in his bid for re-election,
has telephoned several Democratic senators to lay the groundwork for
his confirmation hearings next month, a Bush transition spokeswoman
said.
In one of those phone calls on Friday, to Senator Charles E. Schumer, a
New York Democrat who is on the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Ashcroft
asked his former colleague "to hold his fire" until the two men could talk
more in depth, Mr. Schumer's spokesman, Bradley Tusk, said today.
Top aides to Mr. Bush said today that they had detected no softening in
support among senators for Mr. Ashcroft, although some acknowledged
that the timing of the announcement — just before the long Christmas
holiday weekend — made it more difficult for opposition to mobilize
quickly.
A spokeswoman for the Bush transition team said she did not know
whether Mr. Bush or Vice President- elect Dick Cheney, both of whom
are on vacation, had made any calls on Mr. Ashcroft's behalf.
Coming on the heels of the bitterly contested election in Florida, where
many civil rights groups complained that the voting rights of minorities
were violated, Mr. Ashcroft's selection is likely to provide a lightning rod
for many of those same group. Some Democrats said today that tapping into
that energy for confirmation battles was but the first step in mobilizing
core constituencies for longer-term political battles — over future
Supreme Court nominations by Mr. Bush as well as the House and
Senate elections in 2002.
"The attorney general is going to have an enormous amount of power
over who those Supreme Court nominees are," Ms. Lichtman said.
"Someone who lacks the commitment to civil rights and women's rights
ought not be the person who plays the guiding hand in those choices."
The Senate last rejected a cabinet nominee in 1989, when John G.
Tower of Texas was nominated by President George Bush to be
secretary of defense. Other cabinet choices have been withdrawn before
a Senate vote. The Senate rejected Mr. Tower by a vote of 53 to 47,
denying a president his choice of a cabinet member for the first time in 30
years.
Senators from both parties have said in the last few days that unless
damaging information about Mr. Ashcroft suddenly surfaced, his
nomination was unlikely to be derailed. At least on the surface, that
seems unlikely, since Mr. Ashcroft, the son of a Pentecostal preacher,
does not drink, smoke or dance.
"Unless there's something I'm unaware of, I'd be inclined to vote for him,
even though I will have significant questions about his views on civil
liberties, civil rights and criminal justice issues," said Senator Joseph R.
Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
Opponents of Mr. Ashcroft say they will focus on his acceptance of an
honorary degree from Bob Jones University, whose officials have
denounced the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches, and, until
recently, barred interracial dating.
Mr. Ashcroft's opponents are also likely to question him about the role
he played in 1999 when he successfully led the opposition in the Senate
to the nomination of Justice Ronnie White, the first black justice on the
Missouri Supreme Court, to a federal district court seat.
But Mr. Ashcroft's supporters say the criticism is overblown. Senator
Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican on the Judiciary Committee, praised Mr.
Ashcroft as a graduate of the University of Chicago law school and as a
former attorney general and governor of Missouri.
"This is a man that will hit the ground running," Mr. Kyl said on Sunday
on "This Week." "Most importantly, he's a man of great integrity. At
bottom, that's what we want in the attorney general of the United States." |
