Ashcroft

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ashcroft and the Rebs

Los Angeles TImes

Wednesday, December 27, 2000

Ashcroft Once Hailed Confederates

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON--Sen. John Ashcroft, President-elect Bush's
choice to be America's top law enforcement officer, once
hailed Confederate war heroes as "patriots" and suggested
they shouldn't be portrayed as having died for "some
perverted agenda."

The Missouri Republican tapped to be the next attorney
general also has advocated an increased role for
charities while opposing federal money for drug
treatment, saying government assistance shouldn't further
the "lowest and least" conduct.

And a decade ago he refused to sign a presidential
panel's report that concluded America was falling behind
in efforts to bring equality to minorities, calling it
too negative.

As his soon-to-be former colleagues in the Senate prepare
for Ashcroft's confirmation hearings, the GOP senator's
conservative speeches, writings and interviews are being
scrutinized for what they may foreshadow of his views as
attorney general. Democrats and critics have made clear
they intend to make Ashcroft's civil rights record an
issue.

His record shows he vigorously sought to end abortions,
advocated a larger role for charities, pushed amendments
that would permanently alter the Constitution for various
conservative causes and sent what critics say is a mixed
message on race and poverty issues.

In a 1998 interview, Ashcroft criticized efforts by some
historians to portray early Americans, like slave-owning
George Washington, as racist, calling them "malicious
attacks" and "revisionist nonsense." "Your magazine also
helps set the record straight," Ashcroft told the
Southern Partisan, a two-decade-old periodical that has
published articles defending Confederate soldiers and
political figures and once sold a T-shirt commemorating
Abraham Lincoln with the phrase his assassin uttered,
"Thus always to tyrants."

"You've got a heritage of ... defending Southern patriots
like (Gen. Robert E.) Lee, (Gen. Stonewall) Jackson and
(Confederate President Jefferson) Davis," Ashcroft said
in an interview. At the time, he was courting
conservatives for a possible presidential candidacy.

"We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect or
else we'll be taught that these people were giving their
lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor
to some perverted agenda," he added.

Juleanna Glover Weiss, a spokeswoman for Bush's
transition, said Ashcroft's comments reflected that he
"believes in an exact reading on history." "He holds
sacred the legacies of Jefferson, Washington and Martin
Luther King," she said. "Senator Ashcroft's favorite
historical figure is Abraham Lincoln. He has been an avid
student of history."

She added, "he will be an exceptionally strong enforcer
of the civil rights laws as he has been a proponent in
Missouri and throughout his career." As Missouri governor
from 1985 to 1993, Ashcroft signed into law a state
holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil
rights leader; established musician Scott Joplin's house
as Missouri's only historic site honoring a black person;
created an award honoring black educator George
Washington Carver; named a black woman to a state
judgeship; and led a fight to save Lincoln University,
which was founded by black soldiers.

And when he considered becoming Republican Party chairman
in 1993, he urged Republicans to be "tolerant" and to
avoid being "mistakenly portrayed as petty, divisive and
mean-spirited."

But in 1989, when former President George Bush appointed
Ashcroft to a federal commission to study the plight of
minorities in America, he refused to sign the panel's
final report.

That report concluded that the nation was slipping in its
efforts to achieve equality for blacks, Hispanics and
Indians and that many minorities were "afflicted by the
ills of poverty and deprivation."

Ashcroft was one of only two people on the 40 -member
panel, which included former presidents Gerald Ford and
Jimmy Carter and King's widow, Coretta, to refuse to
endorse the findings.

Ashcroft's office said at the time that he believed the
report's portrayal of minorities was too negative and
that its "generalizations about setbacks in progress are
overly broad and counterproductive."

Weiss said Ashcroft was instrumental in getting the panel
created by the president, but when "the report was
written, he was acutely disappointed and believed it had
missed some opportunities.

"He believed that it addressed the plight of some
minorities, but it didn't address all minorities," she
said.

A decade later, Ashcroft found himself under attack from
black leaders after he helped scuttle a federal judgeship
for Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White, the first
black on the state's high court.

Ashcroft said he considered White to be soft on
criminals, and noted he had supported 23 of the 26
nominations of black judges during his Senate tenure. But
black leaders pledged to work against Ashcroft's re-
election.

Ashcroft came under fire for accepting an honorary degree
and giving the commencement speech at Bob Jones
University, which once opposed interracial marriages and
dating.

Ashcroft said he was unaware of the university's views
when he gave the speech but declined to return the
degree.

And though they didn't garner national attention,
Ashcroft's comments in Southern Partisan drew sharp
criticism from black leaders in his state. In the
magazine interview, Ashcroft was asked about his views on
a girl who was sent home from school because she
displayed a Confederate flag on her knapsack.

"The right of individuals to respect our history is a
right that the politically correct crowd wants to
eliminate, and this is just not acceptable," Ashcroft
responded.

In the Senate, Ashcroft pushed "charitable choice"
legislation that empowered charities and religious
organizations to better assist the needy. He has spoken
out, however, against using federal funds for drug
treatment. "A government which takes the resources that
we would devote toward the interdiction of drugs and
converts them to treatment resources ... and then assures
citizens that if you're involved in drugs we'll be there
to catch you with a treatment center and also implements
a clean needle program is a government that accommodates
us at our lowest and least instead of calls us to our
highest and best," Ashcroft said in a speech.

Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times