THE WRONG CASE AGAINST ASHCROFT

I would never have picked John Ashcroft as attorney-general, but if I were a Senator, I’d be hard-pressed to vote against him. The only solid reason to vote down a candidate is if he is simply unqualified for the office or of such poor character that one can easily predict he would not be able to perform his job ethically. Neither argument holds for Ashcroft. He’s obviously qualified, and even his political opponents (I count myself among them) concede his sincerity. The worst reason to oppose him was given by Albert Hunt in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, who argued that since blacks perceive Ashcroft as biased, he is unqualified: ‘[I]f an attorney general is perceived as for or against one group of Americans, it sours faith and confidence in the rule of law.’ But what if that perception is not reality? Do we now have to add ‘the perception of bias’ to the ‘appearance of impropriety’ to the roster of smear tactics in modern politics? I think Ashcroft should return his honorary degree to Bob Jones University as a symbolic act. But apart from that, there’s no solid evidence that Ashcroft is somehow biased against blacks. Sure he opposed one black judge for political reasons, but he has backed many, many more. He’s against hate crime laws and affirmative action, but that doesn’t mean he’s a racist. It simply means he’s not a leftist. He’s a fanatical believer in saving every unborn child and executing as many criminals as possible, a position I find morally incoherent. But those views are within the spectrum of decent opinion and certainly don’t bespeak some kind of animus against a group of people. Besides, some black leaders, such as Jesse Jackson, see Bull Connor behind every white face on the block. Giving their paranoia a veto against every cabinet member is a crazy idea. There would never be a fully staffed cabinet. So I’d give Ashcroft a reluctant benefit of the doubt. I find most of his views abhorrent, and his Puritanism worrying. But I’m not the president, and a duly elected one deserves to have the cabinet of his choice. Besides, I can’t help feeling that one of the worries of Ashcroft’s enemies on the left is that he may end up being a pretty fair AG, and exonerate some members of the protestant right from the charge that they cannot be fair and open-minded public servants. I hope Ashcroft survives and proves them wrong. And if he survives and proves his enemies right, then Bush will deserve the drubbing he’ll get at the polls in four years’ time.