LEAHY, HATCH SEEK ASHCROFT TESTIMONY ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

The Bush administration faced new skirmishes on the home front over the
weekend as senators from both parties called on Attorney General John D.
Ashcroft to appear before the Judiciary Committee to justify extraordinary
anti-terrorism measures and Democrats took aim at the administration's
proposed economic stimulus package.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Orrin
G. Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking Republican on the committee, called on
Ashcroft in a letter to put aside "several hours" to answer questions about
military tribunals, racial profiling, and the authorization of wiretaps of
phone calls between suspects and their lawyers.

"I think the attorney general owes the country -- certainly owes the
Congress -- an explanation," Leahy said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Ashcroft
will appear before the committee in early December, Leahy said.

Leahy criticized the Bush administration's declared intention to try
terrorist suspects before military tribunals, which do not have to share
evidence with defendants, and which can convict suspects and impose the
death penalty with only a two-thirds vote. The Vermont Democrat said that
using such courts sends the wrong message about the values the United
States is trying to defend overseas.

"When we're talking about setting aside, largely setting aside our criminal
justice system for something like this, we end up looking to the people
we've asked to be our allies more and more like some of the things that we
are fighting against," Leahy said. "I don't think we should be doing that."

Leahy, who voted against ratifying Ashcroft's nomination, said that there
might be situations that warranted military tribunals but that they should
be implemented with congressional guidelines.

"I don't know why all this has to be done by fiat at the White House," he
said. "Why not trust the normal process of our government?" He said
Congress had already given the administration sweeping new powers in
legislation passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and he said
members of both parties were upset to read in the newspapers of other "ad
hoc, outside-the-justice-system methods" the administration was planning.

Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) also joined the fray. "I
think we've got to be very concerned about some of the suggestions made,"
he said on "Fox News Sunday." He said it was important to strike a balance
between fighting and making sure "we don't trample on the constitutional
rights that we have fought to protect for over 200 years."

The administration has faced broad criticism of anti-terrorist measures
that contradict normal legal procedures, and not only from Democrats. Also
on "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said he was troubled
by Ashcroft's moves to wiretap conversations between suspects and their
lawyers that are normally protected by attorney-client privilege.

"That has been a privilege that's very important," said Shelby, a lawyer.
There is "precedent for it, courts have upheld it, and I think we ought to
keep it," he said.

But Shelby defended the proposed use of military tribunals. "These are
extraordinary times, and I believe you have to have extraordinary
measures," he said. "We are in a war, and I believe President Bush is on
the right track here."

The administration also came under criticism for the structure of the
stimulus package it has proposed to bring the economy out of the slump that
was exacerbated by the Sept. 11 attacks.

Daschle said the package should include more measures to stimulate consumer
spending. The administration has continued to defend tax breaks, largely
for corporations, to encourage investment.

Daschle said that with the nation's factories operating well below
capacity, more consumption is needed. "That's exactly what we want to do:
spur consumption, try to create additional demand," he said. "And that is
probably as fundamental a difference between our parties right now, as we
try to resolve this economic stimulus question."

But the administration took comfort in preliminary figures that Treasury
Secretary Paul H. O'Neill said showed a 4 percent year-over-year retail
sales increase on Friday, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year.

"The number that I saw earlier this morning indicated holiday sales on
Friday were 4 percent over a year ago," O'Neill told ABC's "This Week"
show. "That doesn't sound to me like a weak consumer," he added. He said
tax cuts for small businesses would help protect jobs.

Other surveys had shown a more modest increase in sales.

Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of all spending in the
United States.

Democrats also want more benefits for the unemployed. But White House chief
economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey, on "Fox News Sunday," said, "We have
to start creating paychecks instead of unemployment checks."

O'Neill struck out at the Democratic-controlled Senate for failing to enact
Bush's proposed $75 billion package.

"The Senate has dithered an awful long time in responding to the
president's request for a stimulus package," he told CNN's "Late Edition."
"The elements the president wanted are in the House bill. The Senate needs
to get its act together."