ASHCROFT HAS UPPER HAND IN HEARING ON LIBERTIES

Washington -- Barely 10 months in office, Attorney General John
Ashcroft is fulfilling the worst fears of many liberals who warned
that his conservative approach to law and order posed a grave threat
to civil liberties.

Adding to their dismay, the events of Sept. 11 have provided Ashcroft
an unexpected reservoir of public support and made it possible for
him to take actions and seize powers beyond those predicted by his
fiercest critics.

As he testifies this morning before an increasingly skeptical Senate
Judiciary Committee, the Bush Cabinet member most feared by the left
finds himself in a surprising position of strength.

After escaping a bruising confirmation battle that came within a
handful of votes of scuttling his nomination, Ashcroft has emerged as
perhaps the most powerful attorney general since Robert Kennedy four
decades ago.

"It's a new day," said California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat who
was the first senator to publicly oppose Ashcroft in January but has
since tempered her criticism.

"I understand his desperation to try to stop future terrorist
attacks," Boxer said. "I think he's doing everything he can to
prevent another 9/11."

Emboldened by the public's heightened demand for safety, Ashcroft's
Justice Department has been at the heart of President Bush's war on
terror, taking steps never considered before the attacks and alarming
civil libertarians who do not see their traditional Democratic allies
offering enough resistance.

'Impatient With Democrats'

"I'm getting impatient with the Democrats," said Laura Murphy,
director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"We thought Ashcroft was going to be difficult," she said, "but he is
more hostile to civil liberties than we imagined he would be."

In the past three months, Ashcroft's Justice Department has detained
about 1,200 people, and requested interviews with 5,000 Americans of
Arabic descent. He signed an executive order allowing federal agents
to eavesdrop on conversation between suspected terrorists and their
attorneys, and is proposing to ease 30-year-old restrictions on FBI
surveillance of religious and political organizations.

Doing What Needs To Be Done

"We're going to do what we need to do to protect the American
people," Ashcroft said on ABC's "This Week."

Such moves do not sit well with some Democrats, who have begun to
raise the volume on their complaints.

"Things are much worse than I would have expected from the point of
view of protecting the Bill of Rights," said Wisconsin Democrat Russ
Feingold, the only senator to vote against Ashcroft's anti-terrorism
measure in October.

Feingold said the Senate's near unanimous vote "gave the
administration a green light to pursue all sorts of things they
wouldn't have dreamed of before.

It's been a very poor chapter for Congress."

Though Feingold stood alone in the Senate opposing the anti-terror
measure, other Democrats expressed concern over its sweep. In
addition, Ashcroft's daily prayer meetings within the Department of
Justice, his appointment of conservatives to key Justice Department
posts, his support for gun rights and his reluctance to fill
positions in the civil rights division have irked many liberals.

Civil Issues Besides Terrorism

As most of the nation was paying attention to terror, Ashcroft
further upset civil libertarians by threatening Oregon doctors with
the loss of their license if they helped terminally ill patients
commit suicide under a new state law. He also cracked down on the
distribution of medical marijuana in California, despite the voters'
decision in 1996 to allow pot use for medicinal purposes.

A week before Sept. 11, People for the American Way, a civil
liberties group based in Washington, D.C., released a bruising report
on Ashcroft, titled: "John Ashcroft's First Six Months at the Justice
Department: The Right- Wing Dream Team Takes Over."

"Since then, it's only gotten worse," said Ralph Neas, the group's president.

Yet the expected outcry from interest groups that opposed the
Ashcroft nomination -- defenders of a woman's right to an abortion,
gay rights, the environment -- have been muted as the attorney
general spends a bulk of his time on terrorism.

"He's been rather benign," said Kate Michelman, director of the
National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, which
fiercely opposed his nomination. "We remain concerned, but the events
of Sept. 11 have certainly preoccupied him."

The terrorism measures alone have been enough to alarm many critics.

Worries About Privacy Rights

James Dempsey, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and
Technology, a civil liberties group that focuses on high-tech issues,
says the broad expansion of the government's surveillance and
wiretapping authority sought by Ashcroft is a major threat to privacy
rights.

"Given how far we've gone in under three months -- and the fact that
pace of the proposals from the administration has not abated -- I do
have to say we're seeing a radical shift that could last a
generation," Dempsey said.

Ashcroft's Most Criticized Actions

A look at Attorney General John Ashcroft's controversial measures:

- -- Surveillance: Ashcroft is proposing to ease restrictions on FBI
surveillance of religious and political organizations. The guidelines
were imposed in the 1970s to protect against politically motivated
investigations.

- -- Detentions: The Justice Department has detained about 1,200
people, including about 600 who remain in custody, as part of a
dragnet intended to prevent more terrorist acts. Critics have blasted
Ashcroft's refusal to release the names of all those in custody or
the charges against them.

- -- Attorney-client communications: Ashcroft approved an emergency
order that lets federal agents eavesdrop on conversations between
lawyers and clients in custody. Federal officials would not need a
court order if they suspected the detainee would try to communicate
messages that may "facilitate acts of terrorism."

- -- Military trials: Ashcroft is backing an executive order by
President Bush to try suspected foreign terrorists in military
tribunals without many of the legal protections provided in civilian
courts.

- -- Assisted suicide: Ashcroft issued an order threatening to revoke
the licenses of doctors who prescribe drugs to help patients end
their lives, striking a blow to an assisted-suicide law twice
approved by the voters of Oregon.

- -- Medical marijuana: The Justice Department is seeking a court
decision to allow the government to revoke the prescription drug
licenses of doctors who recommend marijuana to patients. Last month,
federal agents raided and shut down a medical marijuana clinic in Los
Angeles.