Ashcroft Not Whacked Enough For the Bush Pack (AfterDowningStreet)

[marmar]

Ashcroft Not Whacked Enough For the Bush Pack
Submitted by cactuspat on Mon, 2007-05-21 01:54. Evidence | Media

It's rather bizarre to think Ashcroft wasn't whacked enough for the Bush Pack...

Ashcroft's Complex Tenure At Justice - On Some Issues, He Battled White House By Peter Baker and Susan Schmidt Sunday, May 20, 2007; A01

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.

None of this meant that Ashcroft was a closet liberal. He championed a broad expansion of government power to investigate possible terrorist cells through the USA Patriot Act, authorized the detention of hundreds without charges in the days after Sept. 11, pushed immigration agents to fully use their power to deport foreigners, secured new authority to peer into private records even in libraries, and oversaw legal interpretations that opened the door to harsh interrogation techniques that critics called torture. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/22740

[whistle]

1. John Ashcroft had the Patriot Act fully drafted and waiting to be

...immediatedly signed into law after 9/11, so I think he was certainly one of the initial Bushie wackos

[boobooday]

2. Who would have thought?

However, I must say, that rather than revising my opinion of Ashcroft upward, this only serves to make me think, for the four millionth time, that Bush and Cheney are even more evil than I thought.

[merh]

3. I know, it is truly frightening when facts prove that Ashcroft had more

scruples than they have.

The White House Limbo, How low will they go?

:(

[boobooday]

4. So far, it seems bottomless

Like a black hole of integrity.

[MADem]

5. And here's the oddest thing of all. Guess what he's doing now?

Teaching ETHICS.....at REGENT.

[merh]

6. That's not odd, that is frightening.

Think of the students that have learned from the master. :scared:

[MADem]

7. Well, I gotta say, old "let the eagle soar" did do two 'correct' things

He didn't challenge the election of a dead man after he lost to him (and you know BushCo would have pulled out the stops)

He wouldn't let Gonzo and Card bully him.

By Regent standards, that must make him Christ Risen.

[merh]

8. OMG - you are right

:rofl: :rofl:

thanks for the morning chuckle :hi: