cannabisnews.com: From Election Loss, Ashcroft Goes To Top 





From Election Loss, Ashcroft Goes To Top 
Posted by FoM on November 18, 2001 at 10:15:40 PT
By David Johnston, Todd S. Purdum
Source: New York Times
"For every crucifixion," John Ashcroft likes to say, "a resurrection is waiting to follow," and, more than most people in Washington, he should know.Just a year ago, Mr. Ashcroft's future looked grim. He had lost his Senate seat after a single term — to a dead man. He was not close to George W. Bush, whose own election was not yet assured. He was not Mr. Bush's first choice for attorney general, and when offered the job, he had to endure a bruising confirmation at the hands of his old Senate colleagues.
But since Sept. 11, Mr. Ashcroft has emerged as perhaps the most powerful attorney general of modern times, rivaling his ideological opposite Robert F. Kennedy, despite a relationship with his president that aides to both say remains more professional than personal. Working seven days a week at the center of the Bush administration's antiterrorism campaign, Mr. Ashcroft has moved swiftly — and sometimes unilaterally — to expand the government's powers to wiretap and detain terrorism suspects and monitor their conversations with their lawyers."We frankly go to bed every night asking ourselves, `Have we done everything we can to protect the liberty and freedom and security of our citizenry?' " Mr. Ashcroft said in a telephone interview on Friday. He added, "I don't know when 19 individuals have killed more people at any time in history, but it demonstrates that the risks are extremely high."For weeks, Mr. Ashcroft has been in the thick of the war, from the issuance of the order signed by Mr. Bush to prosecute foreign nationals accused of terrorism in extraordinary military tribunals, to day-to- day operations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He has been an almost constant presence at the bureau's command center and, with the bureau director, Robert S. Mueller III, has personally directed the investigations in the Sept. 11 and anthrax attacks. New Course on Legal Policy  And, even while immersed in the two- front war on terrorism, he has set a new course on other legal policy, beginning a crackdown on the distribution of marijuana for medical purposes in California and threatening the licenses of doctors who prescribe drugs to help patients end their lives under the terms of the assisted-suicide law twice approved by the voters of Oregon.In the process Mr. Ashcroft, 59, has become not only one of the most activist officials in the history of the Justice Department but also a target for a growing group of critics in both parties who contend that some of the administration's tactics in its war on international terrorism risk threatening civil liberties at home."I don't know whether there's a panic," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the Judiciary Committee, "but there's such a sense of concern, either at the Justice Department or at the White House, that they feel they've got to start acting arbitrarily, trying things that have never been tried before." Mr. Leahy, with his Republican colleague Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, has summoned Mr. Ashcroft to a hearing after Thanksgiving to explain some of his recent antiterrorism moves. "I don't know anybody on the Hill who feels that some of these things have done anything that has increased our security," Mr. Leahy added.Mr. Ashcroft insists he has acted in accordance with his legal powers and the Constitution to combat new and troubling threats."As we believe steps are available for us to take that are within the statutory authority," he said, "and within the Constitution and the framework of liberties, which we are all responsible for protecting, we're going to adapt our procedures and processes to maximize the security of the American people and reduce the danger of these kinds of terrorist attacks." The deeply conservative son and grandson of evangelical Christian preachers, a man so punctilious that he likes to bake chocolate chip cookies uniform enough to be stacked in Pringles potato chip cans, Mr. Ashcroft has told friends that the terrorist attacks amount to a call he cannot shirk. He certainly cannot avoid the spotlight of as many as 10 televised interviews in a single day, or a "Saturday Night Live" lampoon in which Darryl Hammond mimicked his public exhortations to "live your lives as normal, just be strong and just be vigilant, just be confident."In a public career that began with a failed Republican primary campaign for Congress from his home state of Missouri in 1972 and eventually led to two terms as state attorney general and two terms as governor before his election to the Senate in 1994, Mr. Ashcroft has often felt underestimated, friends say. But his family likes to joke that he is the proverbial man who falls into a sewer and comes out with a ham sandwich: always turning his troubles to his advantage. Loyalty Pays Off  Two years ago, he explored a run for the White House, hoping to galvanize conservative Republicans. He decided against running to concentrate on his re-election to the Senate (and endorse Mr. Bush), but lost in a strange race. Mr. Ashcroft's opponent, Gov. Mel Carnahan, was killed in a plane crash shortly before the election, yet narrowly won after Missouri's governor promised to appoint Mr. Carnahan's widow, Jean, to his seat. But the presidential dream dies hard, and Mr. Ashcroft's current post could give him a powerful platform for the future if he succeeds.White House aides recall that Mr. Ashcroft was among the last diehard loyalists of President Bush's father in his losing 1992 campaign, which counts for much in the family councils, and that he has the current president's clear respect. "He's considered by everyone to be a star player, even when there are disagreements," one Bush aide said.Mr. Ashcroft's good friend Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona said: "He's a very humble person. I know he may not always come across that way, but he is. He's always very much in control, and somebody who doesn't know him might get the impression from seeing him on TV that he was arrogant but he isn't."In a city often celebrated for its vices, Mr. Ashcroft neither smokes nor drinks. His idea of a good time is a big bowl of ice cream (any flavor), playing the piano or singing baritone on gospel hymns. His inspirational memoir, "On My Honor," was republished this year by Thomas Nelson Inc., a major religious publishing house. Nelson originally published the book in 1998 under the title, "Lessons From a Father to His Son." No. 9 on Mr. Ashcroft's list of 20 "Beliefs that shape my life" is this: "The verdict of history is inconsequential; the verdict of eternity is what counts."But aides and friends also attest to his sense of humor and say he is not above puncturing tense meetings at the Justice Department with his imitation of Montgomery Burns, the misanthropic nuclear power plant owner on "The Simpsons."His critics insist he lacks the temperament to administer the nation's laws impartially."These last three weeks reflect what John Ashcroft has been about for the past three decades," said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way, the liberal advocacy group. "It's absolutely chilling to see the person entrusted with enforcing our laws and defending our civil liberties showing so little concern for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights." Mr. Ashcroft had expected a confirmation battle in the Senate. But he did not expect the bitter, unrelenting personal assault by former colleagues, his associates said. Through the hearings his face was a mask of stoic calm. But friends said that in private he was shocked and deeply wounded by the ferocity of the assault. Democratic senators questioned Mr. Ashcroft sharply about his views on abortion, gun control, voting rights and especially over his derailment of the appointment to a federal judgeship of the first black member of the Missouri Supreme Court, whom Mr. Ashcroft had called "pro-criminal." Mr. Ashcroft said he had been deeply troubled by several of the judge's opinions. In the early months of his tenure Mr. Ashcroft kept a low profile as he learned his way around the huge Department with more than 100,000 employees.Through the summer, in a series of steps, Mr. Ashcroft began to redefine the department in ways that friends and detractors each said were consistent with their perceptions of his conservatism.In May, Mr. Ashcroft sent a letter to the National Rifle Association expressing his view that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns — a departure from prevailing thinking of the Clinton administration and a strong signal of support for a firearms group that had fought gun control.In June, Mr. Ashcroft took the first step to settle the department's multibillion-dollar civil lawsuit against the tobacco industry, a sharp turn from the policy of the Clinton administration, which had filed the suit in 1999, seeking to recover more than $20 billion in federal health care costs of Medicare patients, veterans and federal employees, attributed to ills from smoking.Mr. Ashcroft also concluded that there was no intentional racial or ethnic bias in federal death penalty cases despite a Justice Department study last year that found substantial racial disparities in federal death sentences. But the events of Sept. 11 began what Mr. Ashcroft's associates regard as the beginning of his second term as attorney general, as the hijackings, the possibility of more attacks and the new threat of bioterrorism thrust Mr. Ashcroft into a central role in the Bush administration.On the morning of the attacks, Mr. Ashcroft was aboard a government jet high above Wisconsin dairy farms, en route to a public appearance in Milwaukee. His secure phone rang aboard the Cessna Citation V, and Mr. Ashcroft scribbled notes as he talked, then hung up and told aides, "This will change the world as we know it."In the weeks since, Mr. Ashcroft has been among the chief proponents of change, asserting that the country's law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies must shift to a wartime footing to prevent further attacks with steps that have enraged civil liberties groups.A senior aide said that Mr. Ashcroft regarded himself as a civil libertarian, but one who believes that war forces the government to take aggressive steps to protect civil liberties. Senator Kyl also said Mr. Ashcroft had a "strong civil libertarian bent" on issues like Internet privacy and a wariness of government power."When he establishes something that grants government power, I know that he's thought it through very carefully," Mr. Kyl said. "He's very well balanced. He's not going to let the extraordinary pressure of this unbalance him to make him something that he's not"To defuse criticism of his record on civil liberties, Mr. Ashcroft likes to note that as chairman of the constitution subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he held hearings on racial profiling and as attorney general he has said he would work to end it.Senator Russell D. Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who requested the hearings, said Mr. Ashcroft "seemed moved by some of the testimony and he indicated he would at least in theory be interested in taking legislative action."But, Mr. Feingold said, "he did not back that up with any action in the Senate at all." The only member of the Senate to vote against the administration's broad antiterrorism bill, Mr. Feingold said he has been troubled by Mr. Ashcroft's failure to provide an explanation of the hundreds of people arrested who have not been identified. Many have been released, but some remain in custody as material witnesses who could be charged with crimes.Mr. Ashcroft has also ordered vast overhauls of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Justice Department itself. Each step has been labeled an effort to combat terrorism, but some, like the reorganization of the immigration service, are long-debated ideas.He permitted the authorities to eavesdrop on conversations between lawyers and some people in federal custody who are suspected of terrorism. Justice Department officials said such eavesdropping is being used against only 13 unidentified federal prisoners convicted of terrorist acts.  Defying Some in F.B.I.  Under Mr. Ashcroft's direction, the authorities have compiled a list of more than 5,000 foreign men living in the United States legally on business, tourist or student visas. The men, mainly from Middle Eastern countries, are being sought for voluntary interviews as possible witnesses who might have information about terrorist operations.Mr. Ashcroft has issued warnings of new terrorist threats, based on vague but credible intelligence information, overruling some reluctant F.B.I. officials. No new attacks occurred, but associates said that he felt the threats could not be withheld."The risks have never been at this scale in American history," Mr. Ashcroft said. He disagreed with critics, including those in the administration, who have complained that the warnings ratcheted up the fear about attacks without providing specific advice or information about how to respond."The worst decision we could make is to believe that this could never happen again and to not count on the possibility of additional acts of terrorism and elevate the risk," he said."One of the lessons of this whole thing is how reliant we are on each other," Mr. Ashcroft added. "We have to trust the American people with that information if you believe it's credible. We have to rely on American people and people have to rely on each other."Complete Title: From Election Loss, Ashcroft Goes To Top in Antiterror CampaignSource: New York Times (NY)Author: David Johnston, Todd S. PurdumPublished: November 18, 2001 Copyright: 2001 The New York Times CompanyContact: letters nytimes.comWebsite: http://www.nytimes.com/Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/Related Articles:For Ashcroft, Ideology Overrides Suffering http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11368.shtmlJohn Ashcroft Declares War On Non-Terrorists http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11361.shtmlPot Club Crackdown - Mother Joneshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11360.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by Lehder on November 20, 2001 at 11:53:04 PT
florida
I consider mayan's argument logical enough given what we already know about the Florida election. In particular, the promise of Jeb Bush that he would "deliver Florida" and the instances of outright subversion like this one:
 On election morning, Darryl Gorham was driving some neighbours to vote in Woodville, outside Tallahassee. They turned a bend in the road about a mile before the polling station and came across a scene straight out of the segregation era. Roadblocks "There were four Florida highway patrolmen standing in the middle of the street, Mr Gorham said. "They were stopping everybody. They had seven or eight cars stopped on the side of the road and waiting. They inspected the headlights,
tail-lights, indicators, licence, registration, tags, everything ... I've lived in Florida most of my life, but I have never ever seen a roadblock like that." Mr Gorham is convinced that the white policemen were trying to slow down the flow of black voters in a historically tight election. He said : "It took maybe 15, maybe 20 minutes. But many people were taking time out from work, or going to work, and it was making them late. Some just turned round and went back." http://pearly-abraham.tripod.com/htmls/florida-racecard.htmlIt's the marketing of truth that's difficult; propaganda appeals to the emotions, rather than the brain, and sells easily. I think this board is pretty well balanced, well argued and logical with many links put forth to back up the arguments. If we had access to television we would have won years ago. Insofar as a marketing plan for our message goes, I share el toonce's frustration only because we lack access to mainstream media - government and corporate controlled television. Getting the message broadcast seems an impossibility.I only object to the childish bantering that can get started here, though it happens very rarely. As a reminder that we are here to influence people, including those who may be intolerant of many things that some of us might tolerate, and that we are in a war on whose outcome depend the lives of millions, I will quote kaptinemo:I have sought mightily to keep the tone of my posts above the usual devolution of pathetic name-calling so frequently found in newsgroups that deal with this subject, and to raise awareness of both friend and foe alike that there are articulate, rational voices raised against this insane DrugWar, that it is not the sole province of the very Cheech & Chong stoners which unfortunately do exist. But lest we forget something very important, I will take the risk of seeming pedantic and remind you all that we are at war. We did not begin the hostilities; the declaration was
made against us. We did not fire the first shot. Yet many of us have actually died from the wounds inflicted by the other side. We have comrades-in-arms rotting in prison. This is not an intellectual exercise for me and for all those, past, present and future, who have either suffered or struggled to alleviate that suffering. This is, at the risk of seeming melodramatic, truly a battle between good and evil. 
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Comment #6 posted by el_toonces on November 20, 2001 at 10:52:45 PT:
Mayan......you've carried away....
Your point about Ashcroft's not contesting his electoral loss in the Senate race is a GOOD POINT, indicating at least that Johnnie was told by the Bushies he would be "taken care of" in terms of future work, but when you go beyond that in bootstrap style logic to say the whole election must have been rigged, basing your conclusion only upon Ashcroft's failure to contest the senatorial election, I cannot follow you (though I can't rule out such a possible "fix" based solely on Ashcroft's post-election activities, either).I point this out only because I often see on these boards high emotion, which is understandable as I too hate the way the government approaches drugs and liberties (they seem to say that if either cause trouble, just eliminate them). The problem is that this high emotion sometimes gets translated into non-logical arguments -- almost hysterical arguments which those who don't read these boards but whose opinion and votes do count in reforming things could weigh against us (i.e., “they are just a bunch of nuts”) if only because they are used to hysterical arguments from the prohibs but not from us and don’t know how to adjust, for lack of a better word, to arguments with emotional appeal when they come from our side.I see this "discrediting" all the time in popular culture. For example, on the "West Wing", written by Aaron "it's some shrooms and coke in my bag" Sorkin, I see pro-pot reformers being referred to as "nuts" who only care about what the media believes are "marginally relevant" concerns. And these kind of statements are made by liberal characters who normally would at least be sympathetic to our cause. I don't know what to make of my perception of this hyperbolic divagation on this board. Is it just people venting, which is fine by me? Or is it the way the writer would carelessly portray our noble cause when publicly advocating our positions? If it is the latter, I am not very optimistic at all. The writers never specify and I see very few posts concerned with developing a "marketing" strategy for our message -- something you can be sure the other side has done, if only because history shows marketing, including propaganda, works.Does anyone here share my concerns?Pax vobiscum,El
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Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on November 19, 2001 at 14:04:10 PT
Ashcroft=KKK
"For every crucifixion," John Ashcroft likes to say, "a resurrection is waiting to follow"ONLY if you've signed a deal with the devil!The politicians are career, professional liars. The best of the best. They're all civil libertarians, they're all for term limits, they all support campaign finance reform, then why do NONE of these things ever happen? 
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Comment #4 posted by dddd on November 18, 2001 at 20:04:05 PT
mayan
..From my point of view,,,your commentary was outstanding!...Sincerely...dddd
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Comment #3 posted by CorvallisEric on November 18, 2001 at 15:13:22 PT
So bad that he's good?
I wonder how many Americans feel this way:That there's a genuine threat from terrorism, regardless of whether or not American policy is partially to blame. We may need some drastic measures to keep safe. But, wait a minute... Ashcroft, who says Have we done everything we can to protect the liberty and freedom and security of our citizenry? has just attacked the liberty and freedom and security (and Republican-touted states rights) of California and Oregon. Hmmm, maybe there's a more widespread problem with Ashcroft's intentions. Maybe there's even a wider problem with the Bush administration. Hmmm...
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Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on November 18, 2001 at 14:14:06 PT
Pro-lifers behind anthrax?
We have all these Middle Eastern men under detention, but these anthrax threats seem to have a pro-choice bias. Leahy Daschle and Feinstein, federal enforcement agencies, that sounds like someone with an axe to grind about federal abortion policy. That hospital worker who was killed -- there could easily have been some abortion link there too.If that's true then inevitably there will be some kind of link between Mullah Ashcroft and the very threat he is supposed to be protecting us from, because these extremist pro-life movements are all linked to each other in some way and Ashcroft is an extremist.Mullah Ashcroft had better hope that the Taliban don't lose Kandahar too soon.He's facing a linkage-to-terrorism disaster in his own future if the plaguing this country anthrax has been coming from America's own version of the Taliban.
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Comment #1 posted by mayan on November 18, 2001 at 11:49:02 PT
Rather a Dead Man Than Asscrotch!
When you get beat by a dead man that should be a hint that you are not very well liked by most. Why Ashcroft didn't contest Mel Carnahan's wife accepting the Governorship of Missouri is beyond me. Missouri State law says that to be elected Governor you have to be a resident of the State. A dead man is not a resident. His wife is not him. Ashcroft could have fought for Governor & won. A power mad zealot like Ashcroft would not give up on that position so easily, after all it was not just some puny city-council seat. The only reason I can think why he didn't contest is because he knew that he would be appointed Attorney General. But that was well before the whole Florida fiasco had been decided beteen Gush & Bore. I have to conclude that the whole Presidential Election was fixed from the outset & only certain members of the power-elite were knowledgable of this. The whole Clinton impeachment process was rigged also to make it look like the Republican's & Democrats hated each other. They knew from the start that they would not have enough votes to remove Clinton from office. That was never their objective. They only wanted to tarnish Gore to draw Bush a little closer in the polls. Gore obviously threw the first debate to gain more support for Bush,who couldn't have even made it close without a little help. Gore will receive payback in due time, if he hasn't already. The power structure in place now has been in the workings for some time. The Republicrats & their binding CFR have fooled most of the people most of the time! They wiil do anything to maintain power & keep third parties at bay. If you think this theory is absurd then the government has done their job very well. That is exactly the way they want us to think. If this seems to far-fetched to be true then they have succeeded in pulling off the greates heist in history. All power is now centralized & we will soon be headed for a one-world government. For now we will simply witness tyranny under King George II & this good old-fashioned monarchy. Here's a list of names & their affiliations with the CFR,Bilderbergers,Trilateralists,Masons,Rhodes Scholars & Skull & Bones. There are many media figures & news anchormen on this list. Quite interesting...
http://www.rense.com/general6/nwoaff.htm
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