" But he (ASHCROFT) also is a former member of the U.S. Senate, which has a fraternity-like tradition of giving deference to its alumni."
Democrats take close, careful aim at Ashcroft
By Toni Locy
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- As liberal and conservative groups prepare to wage
war over President-elect Bush's nomination of former senator John
Ashcroft as U.S. attorney general, many Senate Democrats are, for now,
taking a relatively pragmatic view.
Democratic Senate staffers say that their bosses, under pressure from
liberal groups that view Ashcroft as an anti-abortion warrior who has
shown insensitivity to minorities, plan to sharply question Ashcroft in his
confirmation hearings. But the senators, with an eye on potential battles
ahead over Supreme Court nominees, also want to pick their fights with
Bush carefully, aides say.
So absent some stunning development, Ashcroft, son of a Pentecostal
minister, eventually will be confirmed. But not before ''the senators make it
sufficiently rocky, sufficiently challenging for Ashcroft so that the Bush
administration will think more than once about its choices in the future,''
one Democratic aide says.
Beyond Capitol Hill, the rhetoric is becoming more intense. Liberal groups
-- including the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the
National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, People for the
American Way and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
-- are meeting with key senators, particularly those on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, which will conduct Ashcroft's confirmation hearings. Some of
the groups also have begun national e-mail campaigns aimed at stirring up
opposition to Ashcroft.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of civil rights,
women's rights, civil liberties and labor groups, might join the move to
bounce Ashcroft. The group helped derail conservative judge Robert
Bork's Supreme Court nomination in 1987.
Ashcroft is likely to be questioned about his role in defeating the
nomination of Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White to the federal
bench in 1999.
His foes accused him of racism and of distorting the African-American
judge's record in death penalty cases. Ashcroft's supporters have since
suggested that the fight was political, not racial.
Ashcroft backers are fighting back with their own collection of heavy
hitters. They include officials with the Christian Coalition and attorney
Theodore Olson, who argued on Bush's behalf in the Florida vote recount
case before the U.S. Supreme Court. They are hitting the talk show circuit
and writing op-ed pieces on Ashcroft's behalf.
The former senator, meanwhile, spent more than an hour Thursday
meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the
Judiciary Committee.
No date has been set for the confirmation hearings. Ashcroft, 58, a hero to
the right in part because he blocked several of President Clinton's judicial
nominees, lost his bid for a second term as senator to Missouri Gov. Mel
Carnahan, a Democrat who died in a plane crash shortly before the
election Nov. 7. Ashcroft didn't contest the results, clearing the way for
Carnahan's widow, Jean, to take her husband's Senate seat.
Before joining the Senate, Ashcroft had been Missouri's governor and its
attorney general. In those jobs, he took strong stands on many of the most
contentious issues in politics -- from abortion and gay rights to race and
religion. Because of that, he's one of Bush's most controversial
nominations.
But he also is a former member of the U.S. Senate, which has a
fraternity-like tradition of giving deference to its alumni.
''He's been, on a personal level, viewed as a respectful, decent colleague,''
a Senate Democratic aide says. ''There isn't a lot of respect for the
opposition anymore, especially among newer, conservative members of
the Senate. Ashcroft had that, and that does serve him well.''
He also scored points for graciousness by conceding in the Carnahan race,
the aide says.
NOW President Patricia Ireland says the opposition faces an uphill battle
because the Senate's deference to colleagues is ''very real.'' She says
liberal groups must use all their power to ''strengthen the spines of some
Democrats.''
Ireland and civil rights leaders question whether Ashcroft would enforce
laws he opposes on political and religious grounds.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel to the American Center for Law and Justice, a
conservative public-interest law firm, says Ashcroft would enforce all laws,
even those he disagrees with. ''There's no doubt in my mind, because of
his integrity and character,'' Sekulow says.
As Missouri's attorney general, Ashcroft filed an antitrust lawsuit against
NOW for boycotting the state because it did not ratify the Equal Rights
Amendment. He fought mandatory school busing in St. Louis and
supported reinstatement of the death penalty.
As a senator, he opposed federal money for drug treatment, saying
government shouldn't encourage the ''lowest and least'' conduct. He
co-sponsored legislation declaring that life begins at fertilization. And he
pushed a law allowing faith-based groups to receive federal funding to
assist the needy. He also suggested that Confederate generals were
''patriots.''
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