Ashcroft, OTOH, still only crickets chirping

John Ashcroft's split personality

on the one hand...

good ashcroft...

In addition to rejecting to the most expansive version of the warrantless eavesdropping program, the officials said, Ashcroft also opposed holding detainees indefinitely at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without some form of due process. He fought to guarantee some rights for those to be tried by newly created military commissions. And he insisted that Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers, be prosecuted in a civilian court.

but on the other...

bad ashcroft...

He championed a broad expansion of government power to investigate possible terrorist cells through the USA Patriot Act, authorized the detention of hundreds without charges in the days after Sept. 11, pushed immigration agents to fully use their power to deport foreigners, secured new authority to peer into private records even in libraries, and oversaw legal interpretations that opened the door to harsh interrogation techniques that critics called torture.

good ashcroft...

"John was completely devoted to the Department of Justice and completely devoted to the Constitution," [former deputy attorney general Larry D. Thompson] said.

some of both...

Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. "Clearly, we had an attorney general at that point who at least had strong, independent views. . . . I just wish Ashcroft had exhibited similar independence on the issue of torture."

as my dear departed grandma used to say, "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride..." i wish for a lot of things, so, while we're on the subject of wishes, yes, i wish ashcroft had been a hell of a lot more assertive in putting the "bad" ashcroft on ice, had resisted the intrusive provisions of the patriot act, had stood foursquare against torture, had squelched extraordinary rendition, and spoken up about a whole lot of other things...

my biggest wish, however, is that he would have stepped forward after the disgraceful and illegal hospital incident and shared with those who needed to know, or, even better yet, the american people, just how far beyond the law our president and his hired thugs are willing to go... so, amid all the talk of ashcroft being "an american hero..."

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) praised his "fidelity to the rule of law." The Wonkette Web site posted the headline: "Ashcroft Takes Heroic Stand." Under a similar headline, "John Ashcroft, American Hero," Andrew Sullivan expressed astonishment on his Atlantic magazine blog that "John Ashcroft was way too moderate for these people. John Ashcroft."

i must demur... in spite of the fact that he took a principled stand, he still falls into the ranks of those who could have spoken up but didn't, and into the even worse category of those who still haven't spoken up... like every other government official, john ashcroft took an oath to defend the united states constitution... it still needs defending, perhaps never more so than now, and all we hear from john ashcroft's general direction is crickets chirping...

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