Ashcroft's Complex Tenure At Justice On Some Issues, He Battled White House

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

As attorney general, John D. Ashcroft was the public face of an administration pushing the boundaries of the Constitution to hunt down terrorists, but behind the scenes, according to former aides and White House officials, he at times resisted what he saw as radical overreaching.

Testimony last week that a hospitalized Ashcroft rebuffed aides to President Bush intent on gaining Ashcroft's approval of a surveillance program he had deemed illegal provided a rare view of the inner workings of the early Bush presidency and the depth of internal disagreement over how far to go in responding to the threat of terrorism after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

According to former officials, it was not the only time that the former Missouri senator chosen for the Bush Cabinet in part for his ties to the Christian right would challenge the White House in private. 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.

These internal disputes often put Ashcroft at odds with Vice President Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said the officials, who recalled heated exchanges in front of the president. In the end, the officials said, the conflicts contributed to Ashcroft's departure at the conclusion of Bush's first term, when the president replaced him with a close friend from Texas, Alberto R. Gonzales, who presumably would be more deferential to the White House.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901275.html?hpid=topnews

[More Than A Feeling]

1. Alberto Gonzalez: He makes hardcore liberals long for John Ashcroft.

It's the only way to describe Gonzalez that does his slavish pathetic boot-licking any justice.

[MilesColtrane]

7. Yep..."Let the Eagle Soar", in comparison, sounds pretty good right about now.

Holy crap. When I stop to consider that we probably don't even know the worst of what Bush and Cheney are doing, and that they still 19 months to go....

One things seems apparent. The scope of power that BushCo™ has grabbed and consolidated into the White House in the name of war is so intrusive and far reaching that they would never allow a member of the opposition party to take over.

While we all argue the merits of our favorite candidates we seem to blithely ignore the fact that nothing's really changed as far as election fraud goes.

[tblue]

2. Sure woulda been nice if he had gone public. And, by the way, he still hasn't!

From Rude Pundit:

As Greg Palast has said, how fucked are we that John Ashcroft actually thought some "tool" for "fighting terrorists" went too far?

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

So, I guess we didn't realize how good we had it.

[Kagemusha]

4. On what basis would he have gone public?

He was an executive branch official and these were matters of national security. If only they'd treated Plame's identity with a smidgeon of the care they took for this. ...Except for the hospital room conversation, of course.

[gratuitous]

6. How about his oath of office to defend the Constitution?

How about offering to testify at Gonzales' confirmation hearing and torpedoing the nomination? How about asking for an executive session of the committee to tell them in private what he couldn't say in public due to some spurious "national security" consideration? No, Ashcroft and Comey knew exactly what was happening and both of them stayed silent while Gonzales was installed as Attorney General.

So thanks a whole heckuva lot, Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Comey; you knew what Gonzales was about, and you sat quietly by as he continued to ascend through the government where his garden variety partisan mischief could finally have a chance to do real damage to our nation and its system of governance. The Elephant (political considerations) flies above the Eagle (constitutional considerations) once again.

[CJCRANE]

3. "These internal disputes often put Ashcroft at odds

with Vice President Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld".

The de facto president and the original war czar.

[MasonJar]

5. It took awhile, but Ashcroft did finally recuse himself from the Plame

investigation. He allowed Comey to choose a special prosecuter; he certainly would have been aware that someone like Comey would take the assignment seriously and select someone who would do an honest job. I believe that I am right on this. This is in no way a comment meant to reduce Ashcroft's responsibility for numerous bad acts.

[MisterApologist]

8. Monica Goodling gets her BOYFRIEND a job as ASSISTANT US ATTORNEY!!!!

:nuke: On my website I’ve exposed Monica Goodling and her boyfriend/Assistant US Attorney for Virginia Richard Parker (with 4 pictures)…. (she most likely got him the job)
(http://misterapologist.blogspot.com/)

Its already been reported that the US Attorney for Western Virginia, John Brownlee, was the FIRST name on the list of 5 possible candidates for firing ……

… Perhaps it would be pertinent to ask how Goodling’s boyfriend got the job as Assistant U.S. Attorney in Virginia… and perhaps it might be a good time to figure out why the US Attorney from Virginia (a battleground state) was put on the termination list….

[donco6]

9. Wow. To think Ashcroft was a step up . . .

It makes one worry about who will be tapped next?

[Alexander]

10. A guy like John Ashcroft stood up for the Constitution and civil liberties?

And Gonzo, the pro-choice "moderate" AG, is only too happy to wiretap others for no good reason.

It boggles the mind. :crazy: