ASHCROFT'S OPPOSITION TO JUDGE TROUBLES FOES

By the Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON - As civil-rights leaders seek to mobilize opposition to Sen.
John Ashcroft's nomination for attorney general, many are adopting a
two-word rallying cry: Ronnie White. White is a judge in Ashcroft's home
state of Missouri whose elevation to the federal bench was rejected by the
Senate in 1999 after Ashcroft mounted a vigorous and unusual lobbying
effort, branding the judge ``pro-criminal.''

White is African-American, and for that reason, Ashcroft's opponents accuse
the senator of inflaming racial prejudices through his attacks on the
judge. The White case, coupled with Ashcroft's comments on Southern Civil
War ``patriots'' and other sensitive issues, promises to make racial
politics a hot-button issue in Ashcroft's confirmation hearings, activists say.

``Ronnie White will figure prominently in this debate. This was an example
of Ashcroft engaging essentially in a hate crime against an eminently
qualified African-American solely for political gain,'' said Nan Aron,
president of Alliance for Justice, a civil-rights coalition.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., speaking Sunday on CBS-TV's ``Face the Nation,''
said Ashcroft was ``very unfair, very unjust'' in describing White as
``pro-criminal,'' saying the comments were based on White's actions in a
single case.

Levin added, however, that he expected Ashcroft to be confirmed.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota promised that the
issue of Ashcroft's behavior in the White nomination would be fully
explored during the confirmation process. ``I think questions have been
raised that have not really been fully vetted and answered,'' he said,
speaking on NBC-TV's ``Meet the Press.''

None of Ashcroft's Senate colleagues - including Democrats - has moved
publicly to oppose his nomination, and his confirmation is all but assured.
But the passionate rhetoric from prominent liberal groups suggests that the
battle to confirm Ashcroft will prove the most acrimonious of any of
President-elect George W. Bush's Cabinet nominations.

Ashcroft has declined to give interviews until the confirmation process is
completed in January. But his conservative supporters hail the former
Missouri governor as a man of integrity, and Bush's transition team has put
out material to defend Ashcroft's role in the White controversy.

``When people take a careful look at the (White) nomination battle and
Senator Ashcroft's record, it will be a non-issue,'' said Juleanna Glover
Weiss, a spokeswoman for the Bush transition team.

Ashcroft himself has said that he helped sink White's nomination because
the judge was soft on crime - characterizations disputed by White and his
supporters - not because he is black. Attempts to reach White were
unsuccessful.

Liberal activists are criticizing Ashcroft on other matters as well, and
asking whether he would bring an overly conservative and ideological dogma
to law-enforcement policy.

Abortion-rights groups, for instance, suggest that Ashcroft - an ardent foe
of abortion - might not fully enforce federal laws protecting abortion
clinics from violence and harassment.

The Drug Reform Coordination Network, a coalition favoring liberalized laws
on drug sentencing, medical marijuana and related issues, also is
mobilizing opposition to Ashcroft. It characterizes him as ``one of the
most ideologically extreme drug warriors'' in government.

And the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign-finance watchdog,
questions whether Microsoft Corp.'s $18,000 in contributions since 1999 to
Ashcroft-controlled campaign funds - including $8,000 directly to his
senatorial campaign - might influence the Justice Department's antitrust
lawsuit against the software giant.

``I can't think of a more divisive choice, one that is likely to generate
controversy from the outset,'' Wade Henderson, head of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights, said of the Ashcroft nomination.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, which will review Ashcroft's nomination, said he wants to
explore how the senator's conservative politics will affect his enforcement
of the law.

But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
predicted that Ashcroft will be confirmed easily and said it was
unfortunate that the senator's opponents are trying to depict his stance in
the White case as racially motivated.

``He's a man of impeccable integrity,'' Hatch said. ``He hasn't got a
discriminatory bone in his body.''

``There was good reason'' for Ashcroft to oppose White, Hatch said Sunday
on ABC-TV's ``This Week.'' ``There were 73 of the top law enforcement
people in Missouri who felt that he should not have that position. A
legitimate controversy that literally both sides felt aggrieved on.''

Hatch also pointed out that Ashcroft has voted to confirm 26 black judges.

President Clinton, who tried to bring more diversity to the federal bench,
first nominated White to be a U.S. District Court judge in St. Louis in
1997. As the first black judge on the Missouri Supreme Court, White had
appeared to enjoy broad support.

By the time the full Senate considered White's nomination, Ashcroft was
vigorously attacking the judge's opinions on both the death penalty and
drug prosecutions.

While White's record on the state Supreme Court clearly reflected a
relatively liberal reading of the law, White's supporters charged that
Ashcroft purposely misrepresented it.

The Senate defeated White's nomination on a 55-45 party-line vote, making
him the first judicial nominee in 12 years to be rejected by the full chamber.