By Ben Fritz
Many liberals love to hate John Ashcroft, a controversial figure who is frequently denounced by liberal pundits and contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. But while the Attorney General has been involved in more than enough contentious issues to spark debate, several of Ashcroft's opponents are lacing their attacks with some of the nastiest rhetoric in circulation at the national level.
As Dorothy Rabinowitz pointed out in the Wall Street Journal last week, Democratic presidential candidates are perhaps the worst offenders. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, for instance, said, "John Ashcroft is not a patriot. John Ashcroft is a descendant of Joseph McCarthy." Senator John Kerry, D-MA, meanwhile, implied that the Attorney General can't even tolerate being in a diverse audience, stating at a September 9 debate, "I look out at this audience, and there are people from every background, every creed, every color, every belief, every religion. This is, indeed, John Ashcroft's worse nightmare here."
Such inflammatory and ad hominem attacks have also come from liberal pundits. Writing recently in the liberal magazine In These Times, for instance, Susan Douglas stated, "Third World countries also often have few civil rights, limited free speech, and high police surveillance of dissidents and intellectuals. Thankfully we have John Ashcroft to handle that side of things." And in his syndicated column last week, Walter Cronkite compared Ashcroft with a notorious figure from the Spanish Inquisition: "In his two and a half years in office, Attorney General John Ashcroft has earned himself a remarkable distinction as the Torquemada of American law." Cronkite graciously concedes, "I am not accusing the attorney general of pulling out anyone's fingernails or burning people at the stake (at least I don't know of any such cases)." But, he adds, "one does get the sense these days that the old Spaniard's spirit is comfortably at home in Ashcroft's Department of Justice."
With all the substantive disagreement over the policies of the Department of Justice, John Ashcroft's critics should be able to be more constructive.
[Email this to a friend] [Subscribe to our email list]