Imagine spending a lifetime in public service so a jackass like me can quip, "He's no Bobby Kennedy, but he was better than Bertie Gonzales."

Horrible. Totally anti-civil liberties.

Worthless Christo-Fascist thug. Beneath contempt. Now he's a lobbyist. He should be in prison.

That song of his makes "Afternoon Delight" look like The friggin' White Album. Seriously, what was up with this guy? Forgetting about all of the questions about civil liberties or how much of a power increase the federal government saw during his stint as A.G for a moment, anybody have any adequate defense of Ashcroft's praise of the Confederacy for instance? I have no doubt that their leaders were, objectively speaking, accomplished men, Lee for instance, is probably the greatest military figure the country ever had but facts are facts- what they stood for was a disgrace to God AND Mankind, an absolute horror show, and I say that as someone of part Georgia ancestry. This is the 21st century, and quite frankly, I question the motives of people who defend these types of statements and beliefs. I've no problems with someone being a Republican, and frankly anyone of any faith or ideology can be prejudiced, granted. Hell, we're all prejudiced in some form or fashion, unless you are one of the very, very few truly great and wise people of history, such as Jesus, The Buddha, etc. You show me someone who's not, and I betcha you've just shown me a liar and/ or hypocrite. What irks me are people of any sort who try to sweep such ideas under the rug, or try to justify them. You can't. The people in this particular party, or any party for that matter, who say that these ideas and attitudes, or Bush's speaking at the disgusting Bob Jones U. were wrong, now that I respect. These types of things are not only in The South btw, you will also find them elsewhere in the country.

"Civilized people Muslims, Christians, and Jews all understand that the source of freedom and human dignity is the Creator." You get my Fonz thumb.

He is easily the biggest Nazi alive today.

He passed muster in a tough job in tough times. I can't agree with everything he did, but at least he acted and didn't sit around navel-gazing and hand-wringing.

Contributions as AG in the War on Terror are many. A first class man and one who has been vilified by the radical left. Biggest contribution: through his and Mueller's leadership, we weren't hit again after 9/11.

will take a few years to restore the rights this guy's regime took from us in the early aughts.

Big Brother John is watching you

One hell of a song-writer! Let the mighty eagle soar, indeed! Why do we, as a supposedly secular society, allow so many puritanical freaks and crack-pots into positions of such prominence? Actually managed to make someone like Pat Robertson look reasonable, and I never thought I'd live to see that day.

Someone should send him a retirement present...naked figurine perhaps?

Well, I was upset about how the election turned out, but Ashcroft's resignation was a nice consolation prize. I just hope that we don't get somebody worse.

Not sure what I can really say about this guy. He resembles old school Nazi Fascism, while keeping with contemporary Chinese facisms, and throwing a little middle of the road Soviet paranoia into the mix. This man has not made our country any better. He has never cared about us. Instead, all he cares about is God. I guess he didn't get the memo that God is an artificial construct. Anyway, this guy has been a lunatic most of his life and we need a Nuremberg-esque type of trial to unearth all the evil he has truly done.

The most dangerous man in America.

Fascist

What a sorted waco. I'll bet he and O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Bennett, Dr. Laura, and Jimmy Swagart all sit around toghether smoking dope, watching porn (or in Dr. Laura's case distributing it), calling hookers, gambling and popping pills. What a sight that must be!

awful in doe v unocal wrote an amicus brief in support of a corporation that used slave labor to construct a pipeline.

Doesn't care about you or me

He hates freedom.

Didn't he lose an election to a dead man? Enough said.

i took an oath to defend this country against all enemys forian or domestic and i'm whatching him

We have no freedoms left and now this jerk wants to take more.

So bad it's scary.

Destroyer of the Constitution Special Intrest scum Has not done a rightious thing in his miserable life

This man is a true machiavellian: he has absolutely no concern if American liberties are collateral damage of his policies. He is a paranoid lunatic and the most dangerous attorney general in U.S. history.

Tough on terrorism-great. Horribly wrong on personal freedom and civil liberties. By the definitions that Mr. Ashcroft supports, common petty criminals, people who hold different views than the mainstream on certain events and issues, and basically anyone who dares to excercise his or her First Amendment right to speak out against perceived government injustices of any kind, among others, can be labeled a TERRORIST and stripped of their Constitutional rights!! We need to CLARIFY some things, Mr. Ashcroft, and stop the Nazi police state tactics against ordinary US citizens. Concentrate on finding, apprehending, and prosecuting the REAL terrorists and those who aid them.

Our own Goering!

if we hadn't been attacked by terrorists, his infringement on civil liberties might alarm me more.

Ashcroft hasn't done anything really noteworthy as Attorney General. Is this really the best legal mind available for the job of the top law enforcement official in the country? However on the whole he gets a bum rap from the left for his religiousity and supposed bigotry, which in my opinion is not really there at the job. I think the stuff about him covering up the classical nude statues in the Justice Department Building was a bit silly and infantile, but I won't take points away for him about that, I have other more legitimate concerns. The PATRIOT act in my opinion goes a bit overboard; it infringes on our rights and creates a sense of urgency throughout the country when the threat can be taken care of by conventional means. Specifically the clause in the act which allows the government to review library records is a bit disturbing. We have the right to see different viewpoints. It is a dangerous precedent when the government can influence what people read. I think overall Ashcroft has got to do a better job of keeping his eye on the ball.

Ashcroft is totally conservative. His views on guns are even to the right of the National Rifle Association, and he seems to be against everything good for America. Just look at his creation of the Patriot Act. If he was given complete control of America, which is his dream and our nightmare, the U. S. would be a dictatorship by the next morning, and the Separation of Church and State would be no more.

Oh, God. Here goes a brand new spanking long rant. Now please listen. John Ashcroft is against abortion, but also against sexual contraceptibes including Birth Control pills and IUDS. That stance is very hypocritical. John Ashcroft also voted against any one who was pro-choice. Why can't he accept other people's points of views? He is very fond of Bob Jones University which prohibits gay students and interracial dating. I have a problem with that because my boyfriend is Chinese. If someone was going to tell me who to date, I'd have a problem with that. And what's with all the opposition to anyone who's gay, lesbian, or bisexual? They are people too.

A total disgrace to the office of Attorney General. What is amazing is that the whole nation stood by while this man took the time to put dresses on statues in the Department of Justice.

Bigot.

he scares me

If it were simply a case of one man living the life God wanted him to live, there would be no problem, you could just avoid people like that. Unfortunately this maniac is enforcing his own very narrow view of Christianity and morality on the rest of the country, forcing them to adhere to the same racist, misogynistic, arbitrary values that his diseased mind adheres to. People have a right to worship anyway they wish, but to force others to your own insanity is illegal and immoral. It's not even God's way.

LOL @ the right wing pidgeons here who hide their heads in the sand about Ashcroft's assault on liberty, because he believes in talking donkeys and flying people with more lives than a cat. Newsflash, right-wingers: not everyone in this nation is Christian (thankfully, at least some people still believe in logic and reason, and don't base their lives on a book of fables. I used to be a minister in Ashcroft's religion, so I know what I speak of.) In fact, the vast majority of people in this nation are NOT Pentecostal, and DON'T share the view that a man in the sky says abortion is "morally wrong." Also, LOL at the Democrats and Republicans trying to act like their parties are any different, and act like their parties give two sh!ts about the Constitution or liberty. Both of your parties supported the assault on liberty called the PATRIOT Act, and the leadership of both of your parties should rightfully be hung for treason.

This guy completely lost my confidence when he was petty enough to have the statue covered up. It is an incredibly beautful statue, representing the incredibly beautiful concept of justice, but alas, the Attorney General had a hard time accepting the fact that the statue, the "Spirit of Justice", had one bare boobie. So he became a boobie himself when he ordered curtains to cover it up.

This guy has his priorities wrong. He censors naked statues while babies are dying of anthrax. Jeez!

A devout Christian who isn't scared to stand up for what he believes. The liberal animosity toward him is proof of their anit-Christian, anti-personal freedom, anti-moral stance. Mr. Ashcroft, just keep being the dignified, great man that you are and keep up the good work.

We've had a long cavalcade of truly lame Attorney Generals in this country over the past two decades, but Ashcroft is by far the weakest, least qualified and most dangerous. Firstly, any crazed, speaking-in-tongues Pentacostal should be disqualified from holding public office because the disturbed combination of church and state agenda of such people is decidedly Un-American. Secondly, the former Senator is so dreadful that the voters of Missouri turned him out as a One Term Wonder: in this, he couldn't win an election against a dead man. What was the reward for this relentless mediocrity? Being named by a brain-dead President to the highest law enforcement job in the country, despite the fact that Ashcroft never prosecuted a case in his entire sorry life. This guy has the most cursory understanding of the Constitution (i.e., his warped reading of the Second Amendment)and an evident antipathy towards the civil rights of the public-at-large (see his championing of that fascistic Patriot Act). I thought it was a panic when the ultra-prudish Attorney General spent the taxpayers' money on drapery to cover classically-inspired nude statues at the Justice Department: (1) Doesn't this constitute censorship and deny basic free-speech rights? (2) If those statures didn't bother anybody for decades, why are they considered "smutty" all of a sudden? (3) Isn't this another example of the GOP wasting our money for purely ideological purposes? (4) Doesn't Ashcroft's imposition of so-called "morality" play it fast and loose with the separation of church and state? (4) What gives this douchebag the right to impose his prudishness on others? (5) Why does this guy consider classical forms of art that have graced public places for centuries inappropriate in 2003? (6) Why does this dolt consider the nude human form sinful if the nude human form is something that God supposedly created in his own likeness? It all comes to this: Ashcroft is a prime example of GWB's bill of goods that he sold to the American public that was swallowed lock stock and barrel, i.e., that the imbecilic former Texas Governor would be surrounded by the best, brightest and most capable advisors imaginable. Well, the actuality is galaxies away from the advertising, and in this, Ashcroft's boss proved himself to be a bigger liar than Bubba Clinton, which is really quite an achievement.

John Ashcroft is a great Attorney General, and yes, he is enforcing laws and protecting our constitution. I haven't lost any of my freedoms since the Patriot Act has been put in place. I don't think any of the anti-Ashcroft bashers have as well. Face it folks, George W. Bush is not the moron you wanted him to be and he will be re-elected and Ashcroft will be Attorney General for four more years.

So smart.....

John Ashcroft was unequivocally the best choice for Attorney General. Brave, articulate, highly intelligent, he is the perfect complement to a President who seeks to protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Mr. Ashcroft is a pious man, and I trust him with our security, despite the pundits who claim he trounces on civil liberties. Yes, civil liberties are important, but when people take advantage of their civil liberties, a free and democrat society can be chipped away by attrition.

I think this guy is great. He is brave and effective; although, I think The President needs to keep a tight reign on him to ensure he doesn't convey the image that he is operating on the fringes of violating civil liberties. Mr. Ashcroft is another wonderful and courageous part of the already solid Bush cabinet. Bravo!

spending tax dollars to cover up a freakin statue, tapping people's phone lines, investigating what kind of books people are checking out of the library...I never thought I'd see the day when the Secret Police landed on our shores. Patriot Act???!!!! PATRIOT ACT????? Our founding fathers are probably rolling over in their graves in furious fits of spasms! Do a little reading and educate yourselves, people! It won't seem funny anymore when we wake up one day and find all of our civil liberties gone and a bunch of KGB wanna-be sickos keeping files on our every move. Back in the USSR...

It should be AsKroft. This guys is trampling on the Constitution and Republicans are kissing has ass saying thank you. At least the voters of Missouri got it right - they elected a dead guy for Senator instead of him!

John Ashcroft spent $8,000 of tax payers money to hide the breasts of the 'Spirit of Justice' because they were indecent. This entire bunch of neo-conservative knitwhits have made the White house into a place like the Taliban-A religious uptight moral point your finger at any body regime. I can't wait to see what 2004 will bring!

I was born after the fall of the Jim Crow laws. So it's fortunate that I can now witness those laws embodied in this atty. general. He's a racist who prefers segregation... in God's name. And I should be careful, he's probably spying on me right now. Hey, I wasn't using my civil liberties, anyway. What an awful human being. 2004, and a new administration, cannot arrive soon enough.

John Ashcroft stands above other politicians in that he is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in before consulting the "special interest groups". STanding up for the rights of an unborn child takes a lot in today's world where the backasswards people who fight against going after a murderer like Hussein are the same ones who will taken and have taken the life of any innocent unborn child without thinking twice about it! I guess birds of a feather do flock together! I am thankful people like John Ascroft aren't part of the flock!