ASHCROFT II

Important Questions for Attorney General Nominee

The resignation of John Ashcroft as attorney general of the United States
would be welcome had not President George W. Bush appointed a replacement
Wednesday who is cut from the same cloth.

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, long rumored to be on the president's
short list for the Supreme Court, has exhibited some of the same disdain
for civil liberties displayed by Ashcroft.

The outgoing attorney general was the primary author of the U.S.A. Patriot
Act -- including its provisions to seize library records and gag librarians
from alerting patrons that the government was interested in their reading
list. Ashcroft's standard response to civil libertarian critics was "Treason!"

In pursuing hospital abortion records, he challenged the confidentiality of
doctor-patient relations, and he crusaded against medical marijuana and
assisted suicide even as his office was botching a much-ballyhooed
terrorism case in Detroit.

Ashcroft's presumptive successor, subject to Senate confirmation, called
the Geneva Conventions "quaint" when he wrote that the United States could
waive protections for prisoners of war. Some condemn that February 2002
memo for helping create the climate that led to the abuses at the Abu
Ghraib prison. Gonzales also stood behind the policy of detaining some
terrorism suspects for extended periods of time without letting them visit
lawyers or launch court challenges. The Supreme Court effectively cut down
that policy this summer.

With Republicans solidly in control of the Senate, Gonzales can expect to
be confirmed. But Democrats must raise these critical issues during the
hearings. They should not be cowed if Bush tries to paint them as
anti-Hispanic for challenging his nominee to this critically important post.