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TITLE: NOW Statement on John Ashcroft |
AUTHOR: |
ORG: NOW |
DATE: January 16, 2001 |
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President-Elect George W. Bush has promised the American people that he will be a "uniter, not a divider." While the Washington D.C. police prepare for hundreds of thousands of American citizens on inauguration day to protest how this President came by his title, this uniter of a President has created another raging and divisive debate in our Nation through his nomination of John Ashcroft for U.S. Attorney General. John Ashcroft is not just a conservative, he is the embodiment of the extremist views of the far right. And the Attorney General is not just a low-level cabinet post, it is the office that vets nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, selects which cases to bring before the U.S. Supreme Court, and shapes the enforcement of laws across this land. Here is why John Ashcroft has become the most divisive nominee since the 1987 battle over Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. In his own words, here is where John Ashcroft stands on abortion: "My public record reflects my conviction that an unborn child has a fundamental right to life. As governor and senator, I have worked on a bipartisan basis for reasonable restrictions on access to abortion." He fought the confirmation of David Satcher, a distinguished black physician, as surgeon general, because Satcher opposed a ban on late-term abortions; As Missouri's attorney general in the 1980s, Aschcroft fought school desegregation plans in St. Louis; As a U.S. Senator, Ashcroft repeatedly delayed and opposed lower-court nominations based on where the nominee stood on abortion or civil rights; Ashcroft's unique ability to polarize rather than unite is accentuated by the bizarre interview he gave to the Southern Partisan, a neo-confederate publication that praised former KKK leader David Duke as "a Populist spokesperson for a recapturing of the American ideal," and routinely denounces Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. In that interview, Ashcroft stated: "Your magazine also helps set the record straight. You've got a heritage of doing that, of defending Southern patriots like [Robert E.] Lee, [Stonewall] Jackson and [Jefferson] Davis. Traditionalists must do more. I've got to do more. We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda." Ashcroft has also come under fire for accepting an honorary degree in 1999 and giving the commencement speech at Bob Jones University, which until recently opposed interracial marriages and dating. Ashcroft opposed federal money for drug treatment, saying government assistance shouldn't further the "lowest and least" conduct. He opposed federal job training money to Americans who don't complete high school, saying a diploma was necessary to "enable workers to adapt and meet the needs of ever-changing technology." In 1988, Ashcroft served on a federal commission to study the plight of minorities in America. When the report concluded that America was slipping in its efforts to achieve equality for blacks, Hispanics and Indians and that many minorities were "afflicted by the ills of poverty and deprivation," John Ashcroft refused to sign the report. Thirty-eight other members of that panel signed the report, including former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter as well as Coretta King. Ashcroft defamed Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White, an African American, calling him "pro-criminal" despite White's record of upholding the death sentence in 41 of 59 cases that came before him. In February 1999, as Ashcroft sat in judgment of President Clinton during the Senate impeachment trial, his political action committee sold access to his fund-raising mailing list to Linda Tripp, so she could raise money for a legal defense fund. Here is what leading civil rights activists and publications have to say about Ashcroft as the top law enforcement officer of America: "I question whether he is soft on the Constitution. I remember when he sued the National Organization for Women for the boycott of the unratified states in the Equal Rights Amendments. I think that was, and the 8th Circuit thought that was, a matter of free speech, and the right to petition the government." -- Patricia Ireland, President, NOW "It's terribly ominous. He [Bush] didn't just choose someone who is philosophically in line with him in opposing Roe v. Wade and freedom of choice. He chose someone who made the centerpiece of his public career taking away women's constitutional right." -- Kate Michelman, President of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League "John Ashcroft is the antithesis of the person required to lead the Department of Justice. With the possible exception of Senator Jesse Helms, I do not believe anyone in the United States has a more abysmal record on civil rights and civil liberties." -- Ralph G. Neas, President of People for the American Way "It's perfectly reasonable to question whether an attorney general who has celebrated the angry mobs demonstrating at abortion clinics will also defend the legal right of those clinics to function." Los Angeles Times' Scheer "There should be a different standard for the attorney general, who must engender public confidence in guaranteeing equal justice for all American." Wall Street Journal's Hunt "Ashcroft's positions on civil rights are about as sensitive as a hammer blow to the head." Time Magazine's White. END |