ASHCROFT MAKES PLEA FOR SENTENCING

Before Ending His Tenure As Attorney General, He Calls for Strict Penal
Guidelines, Defends the Patriot Act and Vows Not to Run For Office Again.

WASHINGTON - Departing Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, warning Tuesday that a
recent Supreme Court decision could lead to more lenient treatment of
violent offenders, called on Congress to enact tougher federal sentencing
guidelines.

Ashcroft, who is to leave office once his replacement is approved by the
Senate - probably Thursday - also said his greatest regret as the nation's
highest law enforcement officer for the last four years was not adequately
explaining the Patriot Act to the American people.

He also vowed never to run for public office again.

Ashcroft made the remarks in a meeting with reporters and a speech to the
conservative Heritage Foundation while the confirmation of the man
nominated to succeed him, White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, was
debated on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Gonzales is expected to be
confirmed this week.

Ashcroft strongly defended the Patriot Act, enacted in the months after the
Sept. 11 attacks, contending that it had been misunderstood and unfairly
criticized.

Detractors have said the greater latitude it gave police on wiretaps and
other tools has infringed on individual liberties.

Ashcroft's Justice Department had decidedly mixed success in prosecuting
alleged terrorists, with numerous cases reduced to lesser offenses or
dismissed outright.

The onetime Missouri governor said the legislation led to more arrests and
helped to bring down the national crime rate. He said it not only helped
foil terrorists but also had been used in domestic cases.

He pointed to the quick arrest of the woman charged with killing Bobbie Jo
Stinnett and stealing Stinnett's baby from her womb, saying that had
authorities not been able to tap into the victim's e-mail, the suspect
might never have been found.

The expectant mother from Missouri was strangled in December, and her
nearly full-term baby girl was cut from her womb. Police searched
Stinnett's home computer and found that a woman had written to her asking
for directions to the house that day. That woman, Lisa Montgomery, was
arrested, and the baby, named Victoria Jo, was found alive. Ashcroft called
it "a final act of grace in a sad, savage drama."

In the Heritage Foundation speech, Ashcroft called last month's Supreme
Court ruling on federal sentencing guidelines "a retreat from justice that
may put the public's safety in jeopardy."

Two decades ago, Congress set uniform sentencing requirements and largely
took away discretion from judges, a move hailed by prosecutors. But the
high court said in January that judges, many of whom have bemoaned the
guidelines, should have more discretion with punishments.

Ashcroft disagreed. He said that "in all, 35 million Americans have been
spared the pain of violent crime in the past decade - in no small part
because the criminals who would have victimized them were serving tough
sentences."

In his conversation with reporters, the attorney general, who earlier had
served as a Republican governor and senator from Missouri, vowed never to
seek political office again. He noted that he already had the ignominious
distinction of being the only senator to lose reelection to a dead
opponent, after his Democratic challenger in 2000, Gov. Mel Carnahan, died
in a plane crash.

Ashcroft said that if he still had a security detail, he would want three
armed guards and for all of them to stop him should he change his mind
about reentering politics.

Why three?

"In case the first two misfire," he said, laughing.