Word: ashcroft
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...Ashcroft faces down his critics...
...Ashcroft's primary mission was to fend off attacks from Democrats, who assailed his record on civil rights and questioned his dedication to "sensible gun laws." The nominee, who appeared fairly energetic at 10 a.m., seemed to age 15 years during the course of the marathon day. And while Ashcroft held his own as the accusations intensified, Democratic senators Joe Biden, Dick Durbin and Edward Kennedy appeared especially eager to land as many blows as possible, roaring across their table at the frustrated nominee, who asked several times for "uninterrupted time to respond...
...Many familiar themes resurfaced as the senators tore into Ashcroft's handling of Justice Ronnie White's nomination for the federal bench, his refusal to meet with James Hormel when he was nominated as ambassador to Luxembourg and his unapologetic interest in finding loopholes in Roe v. Wade...
...Ashcroft took a shot at explanations, saying of his Ronnie White opposition, "I believe that I acted properly in carrying out my duties as a member of the Senate in relation to Judge Ronnie White," and responding even more forcefully to questions about his inclusion in the neo-Confederate (some say racist) Southern Partisan magazine. "I repudiate racist organizations, racist ideas," he said. "[The] question is, will people have confidence in me, and I assure them that they will, because I will serve and I will serve well. I will enforce the law. I reject racism. I reach...
...Ashcroft's answers sometimes avoided the questions altogether, as if perhaps he was more interested in putting a few minds at ease than in full disclosure - an approach that reportedly has Democrats fuming and claiming Ashcroft is masking his true convictions. Will Ashcroft's closely held conservative ideology, they demanded, influence the way he'd enforce the law of the land? Absolutely not, replied Ashcroft again and again, in an increasingly injured tone. "I know the difference between enactment and enforcement." Undeterred, his assailants kept up their attack well into the evening. Democrat Herb Kohl, who lackadaisically probed Ashcroft about...