Word: ashcroft
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...crazy thought? Yes, but this was a matter of no small importance. George W. Bush has chosen John Ashcroft to be Attorney General. The two people who will presumably have the principal responsibility for filling vacancies on the Supreme Court have both publicly stated--Bush in answering an interviewer's question, Ashcroft in a law-review article--that Clarence Thomas is their ideal justice. Since Justice Thomas doesn't speak in oral argument, and has written no particularly memorable opinions, what exactly is it that they admire about...
...Apparently Senate collegiality will get John Ashcroft safely through to the post of attorney general, and I would guess Gale Norton will make it as secretary of the interior, despite the taint of her having been a protégée of James Watt, the egregious lulu who served as Ronald Reagan's interior secretary; Watt did not worry much about the environment, since he believed that the biblical Armageddon was just around the corner and would presently moot all controversies over oil drilling, logging and other worldly trifles...
Some U.S. Senate Republicans are privately miffed at their leader, Trent Lott, because Democrats are chairing the opening rounds of hearings for George W. Bush's Cabinet nominees, particularly the ones next week for the two most controversial picks, John Ashcroft and Linda Chavez. Until Jan. 20, Democrats have a majority in the 50-50-split Senate because Al Gore still has his job as vice president of the nation and president of the Senate. Gore can cast tie-breaking votes; after Jan. 20, when Bush and Dick Cheney are sworn in, Cheney presides over the Senate, giving Republicans...
...days of Democratic rule could come back to haunt Republicans. Chavez, Bush's labor secretary pick, is now under fire for providing a room and money for an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Ashcroft, the just-defeated Missouri Republican senator, is under attack from liberal groups for what they claim is a hostile record on civil rights. Daschle has promised no Democratic shenanigans during his 17-day reign, but Republicans are bracing for partisan attacks during the opening Chavez and Ashcroft hearings next week. "Bipartisanship is over," grumbles one senior Senate GOP aide...
...finally, there's John Ashcroft, who at this point looks very much like the heat-seeking missile of these confirmation hearings. Unlike Chavez, Ashcroft is unlikely to remove himself from consideration, no matter how virulent the attacks get - and they promise to be plenty virulent. Nobody on the left likes Bush's pick for attorney general: Abortion-rights activists, minority groups, feminists, labor unions and environmentalists are already bombarding congressional offices with information designed to destroy Ashcroft's nomination. The former senator is under fire for his pro-life views, his efforts to derail judicial appointments of blacks and women...