John Ashcroft is stepping down from his position as one of the left's favorite whipping boys. According to them he has trampled civil liberties. While nobody can say exactly where how, they cling to the notion that he is reponsible for passing the Patriot Act, and accuse him of abuses in its name.
Finiancier and anti-Bush activist George Soros was only one of many who bashed Ashcroft, saying in a speech last summer: “Ashcroft passed the Patriot Act.”
In reality, Congress passed the Patriot Act, and President Bush signed it into law. The vote in the Senate was 96 to one, with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry being one of the 96 “aye” votes.
The reality is that Ashcroft was more of a guardian than an enemy of civil liberties. His position on the Second Amendment makes that point. In a letter to the National Rifle Association dated May 17, 2001, he had this to say.
While some have argued that the Second Amendment guarantees only a "collective right" of the States to maintain militias, I believe that the Amendment's plain meaning and original intent prove otherwise. Like the First and Fourth Amendments, the Second Amendment protects the rights of "the people" which the Supreme Court has noted is a term of art that should be interpreted consistently throughout the Bill of Rights.
Even more telling is his respect for the law, as described by Viet Dinh, who served as assistant attorney general under Ashcroft until last summer.
“He led the department in a very, very difficult time and withstood a lot of criticism and despite that criticism, he has remained steadfast and his mission remained clear. That’s why he was such an effective leader of change and a powerful attorney general.”
Dinh added, "Of course there have been mistakes made in specific prosecutions. But when those mistakes were uncovered it is another great mark of John Ashcroft's leadership that he doesn't try to paper it over, or to spin it away politically. In the case of the Detroit (terrorist) prosecutions he came into the court after a full and fair investigation by the Department of Justice and confessed error. He said, ‘We had prosecutors who exceeded the bounds of their authority and who have potentially violated the constitutional rights of the defendants. We hereby drop all the prosecutions and we will see what charges we can bring in a legal constitutional manner.’”
We should all hope the next Attorney General will put the same emphasis on respect for individual rights as did John Ashcroft.
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