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Ashcroft
: Jay Rosen is on a rye roll on Attorney General John Ashcroft and the press.
: Speaking of whom… I’m just wondering: As the presidential election draws nearer, it will become more and more necessary for Bush to come to the center. To attract centrist fence-sitters, doesn’t it become necessary to throw the single most offensive Bush nominee, Ashcroft, over the side? Can we count on that anytime soon?
One can only hope so . . . something tells me Aschroft won’t go without a fight, though. At least, I’m truly thankful he didn’t run for President.
It probably depends on where the Democratic nominee appears to be going with their campaign. One that tacks more towards the center will force Bush to do the same, but one that stays left on issues like Iraq and the war on terror will cede the center to Bush and keep any pressure to dump Ashcroft away from his campaign.
I agree with John here.
Would you believe that the election is a year away?
The left has created a big void in the center, so it’s natural (but wrongminded) for Bush to go to the center.
Bush’s latest moves have already headed to the center (keeping Arafat in the mix, appealing to the UN for help, etc.), and it is possible he is doing that in part as a strategy so he can keep his conservative people around him (Ashcroft & company)…..the problem is that he is pissing off his conservative base the further to the center he goes.
It’s nice the left has a bogeyman to point at in the upcoming race. But coming up with actual FACTS about all the harm Ashcroft is doing to America, you know EVIDENCE, … would that be too much to ask. I’m not the man’s biggest fan, but what I’ve seen so far is the same kind of tactic as telling senior citizens X party is going to put their asses out on the street and take away their meds.
Roger Simon, not a man of the right, sort of puts things in perspective today
http://rogerlsimon.com/archives/00000377.htm
I don’t know, did Reagan ever make James Watts quit? I can’t remember. It does seem like Republican presidents like to have one cabinet-member-you-love-to-hate, to deflect from the head guy (I suppose Bush Sr.’s was Sununu, though he was more hated by people who had to deal with him in person).
Sheesh, why do people have to demonize Ashcroft? Name one thing that you object to and explain why it’s bad. I’m mean stuff like this link — he didn’t weant to talk to hostile journalists — is this it? Is this the best you have?
Ashcroft’s approval ratings have been consistently around 50-60% during all of 2002-2003. They dropped below 50% only in the latest poll (coinciding with a drop in the approval ratings of just about all other members of the federal government, Republican or Democrat).
The continued demonization of Ashcroft simply hasn’t had an impact on the general population. Perhaps that will change as the public begins to pay attention to politics in the run-up to November 2004, but there doesn’t seem to be any apparent reason for Bush to jettison Ashcroft in order to appease the masses.
Link: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=397
IMHO, in order to move to the center, Bush would have to actually move to the right of Bill Clinton.
Most of the fears about Ashcroft seem to be simply because he’s religious.
From your keys to God’s ears.
Biddle, FDR’s Main Line Atty Gen., allowed the internment of 100,000+ Japanese Americans, an
act even J Edgar Hoover, found dubious.(Of course
one will cite the attitudes of Gen Dewitt, but
he didn’t write Ex Order 9066, did he) Wilson’
s Atty generaL, Mitchell Palmer, probably jailed
& or deported as many foreign nationals. Ashcroft,
in the aftermath of an unprescendented calamity,
might have 700+ nationals in a dubious state.
Krauthammer tries to sort out this Bush/Ashcroft hate –
Bill Moyers may have his politics, but his deferential demeanor and almost avuncular television style made him the Mr. Rogers of American politics. So when he leaves his neighborhood to go to a “Take Back America” rally and denounces George W. Bush’s “government of, by and for the ruling corporate class,” leading a “right-wing wrecking crew” engaged in “a deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States way of governing,” you know that something is going on.
That something is the unhinging of the Democratic Party. Democrats are seized with a loathing for President Bush
The reason why the general public hasn’t become concerned about Ashcroft, is that they figure as long as they obey the law, what do they have to worry about? However in Saddam’s Iraq it could have been said that the “law abiding” were safe as well. It’s a matter of what the law requires of citizens or permits the government to do.
The biggest concern I have is the attempt to use the Patriot Act and any future “Patriot II” Acts for prosecutions of ordinary, non-terrorist crimes in this country, including the effort to redefine drug crimes as terrorism. This has been occurring since Patriot was passed and represents a very serious erosion of our civil liberties.
For some, his religious beliefs may be an issue. However I am a Christian and a conservative. I cheered when he was appointed. I am cheering no longer.