"They say you can't legislate morality. Well, you certainly can." (Chicago Tribune of May 25, 1998)

"Personally abstemious, he banned alcohol from the Governor's mansion during his eight years in office and vetoed a bill allowing Sunday alcohol sales, and yet his fifth largest campaign contributor was Anheuser-Busch." (from a nice CNN article)

What you can do:
Take a few minutes and sign the PFAW's on-line Stop Ashcroft Petition .
Contact your senators (Info is at the Senate's web site Hint: use the "select a state" box in the lower center of this graphically over-wrought web page.)
If you're a member, tell the American Homebrewers Asso. to (like A-B) start making contributions to Ashcroft's political party. (JUST KIDDING!)

A very good Anthony Lewis article on Ashcroft's words and deeds (and the disconnects) in the nominations of Ronnie White and James Hormel
And yet another article on Ashcroft's testimony being incongruent with his deeds and his recent amnesia in regard to such conflicts.

Ashcroft's fights for years over the a parent's right to die case involving a comatose child with no hope of recovery.   The bitter parent  told TIME: "It was a matter of one person in a high position inflicting his religious beliefs onto a family.  Is John Ashcroft's religion better than mine?"

He fought a 1983 voluntary-busing scheme for St. Louis, even though the 22 school districts in the surrounding white suburbs--where 12,000 inner-city kids would be transported every year--approved it.

Ashcroft also opposed Clinton's nomination of David Satcher, a black physician, for Surgeon General. But Ashcroft cited Satcher's support of partial-birth abortion as the basis for his opposition.

Ashcroft blocked all kinds of appointments- not just Ronnie White's.  From openly gay ambassadorial nominee James Hormel to Susan Oki Mollway, the first Asian-American woman to serve on the federal bench in Hawaii. In Hormel's case, Ashcroft's objections had nothing to do with his qualifications and everything to do with his  lifestyle. Ashcroft would refuse even to meet with judicial nominees he opposed to hear their side of the story.

Ashcroft's supporters have stated that his views on abortion (e.g. no exceptions for rape or incest) and other subjects shouldn't be considered in evaluating his fitness for Attorney General.  IMHO, the last two items above blows that position and reveals more than a tad of hypocrisy.

Missouri Representative William Clay charged that Senators Ashcroft and Bond "committed racist acts in denying [White] a chance to respond" to the last minute Republican "pro-criminal" charges against him.  California Representative Maxine Waters stated that the Missouri Senators "acted in a racist manner."

Other Senators on the Judiciary Committee, such as John Ashcroft (R-Missouri), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), and Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) asked equally inappropriate questions that delved into the private viewpoints of nominees, rather than those that elicited an understanding of Supreme Court precedent or fidelity to circuit court decisions.

And more:
1.  Details on yet another African-American he's torpedoed- Frederica Massiah-Jackson
2.  Uses Susan Oki's membership in ACLU as a club in her nomination hearings.

(ed note/rant: Yet Ashcroft's membership in an organization which has called federal law enforcement agents—including those of the Justice Department's own Federal Bureau of Investigation—"jack-booted government thugs" and compared FBI agents to goose-stepping Nazis, has not been similiarly used against him (yet?).   It's also an organization even Elder Bush resigned his life membership in.   See this article   FWIW, I also resigned from it after a Harlan Carter editorial appeared in their Rifleman magazine which advocated suspending several constititional provisions (e.g. habeas corpus, jury trail, searches, ect.) and use of the military as law enforcement in the war on drugs.   Geez-  this from an organization that supports the 2nd admendment!   )
 

 In late January, Sen. Ashcroft announced at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D. C. that the  confirmation of Satcher "would weaken seriously the influence and moral authority of the position."  Ashcroft noted that he, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, and others had placed "holds" on the Satcher nomination.

Ashcroft failed my litmus tests on his vote on  S. 1956 (Government Funding of Religious Institutions).   As Attorney General, will he fight as well for govt. funding of, say, a Wiccan welfare program as an Assembly of God welfare program?

Everyone knows he's for outlawing abortion (even in cases of rape or incest), but he's also against contraception...

An on-line email petition.

A chronology  and a fact sheet on Ashcroft's repeated assaults on women's reproductive rights.

The Stop Ashcroft! Campaign Action Kit (.pdf file, 7 pages)

Action sheet

Some of the other Organizations officially against the John Ashcroft Nomination

---

Sierra Club's online petition addresses Ashcorft as well as Gale Norton.   Kill two birds (or, as it were, turkeys) with one stone.

From a PBS OnLine NewsHour article

Ashcroft tends to side with business interests, supporting a bill that unions opposed which would allow employers to compensate for overtime with compensatory time in lieu of overtime pay.

PRESIDENT-ELECT GEORGE W. BUSH: John Ashcroft will perform his duties guided by principle, not by politics. He will be faithful to the law, pursuing justice without favor. He will enforce the law, and he will follow the truth.

SEN. JOHN ASHCROFT: President-elect Bush, you have my word that I will administer the Department of Justice with integrity. I will advise your administration with integrity, and I will enforce the laws of the United States of America with integrity.

Ashcroft:  Well, I believe that the president has really impaired the national interest  by subordinating it to his personal interest. He's disgraced the office. He has broken the trust of the American people in the office. He's incapacitated himself in large measure with the distrust that he's engendered with both Republicans and Democrats. It's notable that a member of his own party has called for his resignation, Rep. McHale, and others, former members of his party, members of the Congress, editorialists, editorials around the country. The question is: Are we going to live with an incapacitated or otherwise damaged capacity to operate  not only domestically but internationally, with a range of challenges before us? Are we going to be dragged  through continuous additional legal proceedings? It's obvious that the president refused to answer the tough questions when he made his voluntary appearance before the grand jury. Or are we going to put an end to this?   And the way to put an end to it, since the president did not do so in his speech, is for the president to do the  honorable thing, to put the public interest above the national interest, and to resign.

Gwen Ifill discussess  why John Ashcroft's Attorney General nomination causing controversy? (January 2, 2001)

And more on the PBS site via this link.  (the main PBS search page)

"When you consider the person and spirit of Christ, he was interested in finding ways for people to reach their potential, to work at their highest and best. He didn't accommodate people at their lowest and least. That's been a major fault of our government. When it says to youngsters on their way out of class, 'Here's a condom; I know what you're going to be doing, so I'll accomodate you in that.' Or they say to a person on dope, 'Here's a clean needle and a treatment program, so in case you have a bad trip, we'll be there for you.'    That's not real love."
(ed. note: Hmmm, reckon does "real love" includes stoning folks as the Bible teaches....)

"I tend not to be an individual who has invested a great deal of my life in opera," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, noting that his musical tastes run to gospel and country. "Now the opera gets a subsidy from the National Endowment for the Arts, but, by and large, Willie Nelson and Garth Brooks don't. Those of us who drive our pickups to those concerts don't get a subsidy, but the people who drive their Mercedes to the opera get a subsidy."
(ed. note: Glad the National Endowment for the Arts isn't under the Justice Dept...

Asscroft Lies, again...

Justice Dept. Draws Heavy Criticism Over Cancelled Gay Rights Event
by Eric Lichtblau
Saturday, June 7, 2003 New York Times
 

...A group of several hundred gay and lesbian Justice Department employees, called DOJ Pride, had budgeted $600 to
hold an awards ceremony on June 18 at the department's Great Hall to celebrate Gay Pride Month. The group has
held similar events at the department each of the last six years, members said, and Mr. Ashcroft's top deputy spoke
at last year's event...

Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said in a statement today that he had asked Mr. Ashcroft
before confirmation about DOJ Pride's use of government facilities. Mr. Ashcroft said then that he had "no intent to
treat this group differently than any other."