AT HOME ABROAD/ABROAD AT HOME

Ideology As Usual

George W. Bush has focused effectively on the need for an international
alliance against terrorism. But he has not yet understood what a wartime
president has to do at home: Put aside ideological politics so he can be
president of all the people.

With his evident approval, the ideologues in his administration are riding
their conservative hobbyhorses as if the country did not have a higher
purpose now. They, and the president, seem oblivious to the way those
actions threaten national unity.

A striking example is the decision by Attorney General John Ashcroft this
week to try to overrule the voters of Oregon and undo that state's
assisted-suicide law. He said he would move to revoke the drug prescription
license of any Oregon doctor who used drugs to help someone who wanted to die.

Mr. Ashcroft is a fervent opponent of abortion and, like many social and
religious conservatives, sees any state sanction of suicide in the same
light. His decision this week was praised by the National Right to Life
Committee.

In terms of states' rights, which conservatives say they support, the
Ashcroft decision was rank hypocrisy. He asserted federal power in an area
that has always been pre-eminently a matter for state law, the regulation
of medical practice. Oregonians approved the assisted-suicide law narrowly
in a referendum in 1994 and reaffirmed it in 1996 by a 60-to-40 margin.
Even some who had opposed the law reacted bitterly to Mr. Ashcroft's
intrusion on Oregon territory.

In another strange example of his priorities, Mr. Ashcroft last month sent
federal agents to raid a Los Angeles center that supplied marijuana to
desperately ill people under a state law allowing medical use. Does a
wartime Justice Department really have nothing better to do than deprive
cancer and AIDS patients of relief from their pain?

Two weeks ago the British government decided to stop arresting marijuana
users, adopting the policy now followed by most European governments. The
U.S. law against users has not changed, but Mr. Ashcroft has discretion to
use Justice Department resources where they are most urgently needed --
especially in a war situation.

The attorney general has heavy responsibilities on the domestic side of the
fight against terrorism. He is in charge of the hunt for supporters of the
Sept. 11 terrorists, and for the spreaders of anthrax. Pursuing his
ideological desires can only divide the public and weaken respect for the
administration's antiterrorist effort.

Mr. Ashcroft is the most egregious example of an official unable or
unwilling to curb his ideological zealotry at this time. But he is not the
only one.

The environment is another area where the Bush administration is pursuing
highly controversial policies despite the country's preoccupation with the
terrorist threat. Indeed, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and
Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman are taking advantage of that
preoccupation to push through ripper measures while no one is paying attention.

The device being used is an ingenious one: caving in to lawsuits by
interests that object to restraints on environmental damage. One such suit
asks the courts to block a Clinton administration regulation that would
stop further road-building in 60 million pristine acres of the national
forests. The Bush administration has simply put up no defense of the
regulation in court.

The administration is also trying to scuttle a Clinton regulation that
would gradually end the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park: a
rule that the public overwhelmingly approves. When snowmobile manufacturers
sued, the Bush people agreed to "reconsider" the regulation.

Finally, there is the reeking scandal of the so-called economic stimulus
bill passed by the House. It would give some of the largest corporations
refunds for taxes paid over many years in the past: $671 million to General
Electric, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, and $1.4 billion to I.B.M.
Making the rich richer will do little to stimulate the economy, and less to
stimulate our patriotism.

During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt publicly put aside his
domestic objectives for the sake of the war. Dr. New Deal, he said, had to
give way to Dr. Win-the-War. It is time for President Bush to curb his
zealots and focus us all on the struggle against terrorism.