Ivins: Ashcroft was always more Bozo the Clown than Darth Vader

AUSTIN, Texas - Awwww, Ashcroft! My man. The one I liked best of the whole Cabinet, the most consistently entertaining, the most deliciously inept, the most amazingly wrong-headed. Ashcroft, my personal Bush administration icon. And besides, he's so sexy.

How can we forget the golden moments? The day he covered up the nekkid tit on a statue of the Spirit of Justice in the Justice Department headquarters because we can't have that kind of thing. His fabulous pre-9-11 record, especially the day he finally told his top terror guy he just didn't ''want to hear about it.''

And then there's his even more fabulous post-9-11 record. Indicting Zacarias Moussaoui as the ''20th hijacker'' when it turned out, oops, that was somebody else. What a showcase for American justice that trial has been. And the famous case of Jose Padilla, the alleged ''dirty bomber'' who not only didn't have any dirty bombs, he didn't even have a plan to get one.

Notwithstanding all this, Padilla, an American citizen, has been declared an enemy combatant and held incommunicado for three years. He does not have a right to a speedy trial or indeed any trial at all. He is not allowed to talk to a lawyer, not allowed to know the charges against him, not allowed to confront his accusers. I repeat, this is an American citizen, and the same thing can happen to any of us. Courtesy of John Ashcroft's contribution to American law, the PATRIOT Act.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2450169

Anybody that fucks with our constitution the way he has isn't getting any chuckles or guffaws from me.

tongue-in-cheek.

I always wondered what drove the Clinton Haters. Seeing them in action these four years, and especially these last 4 months, I see that it is a manifestation of mental illness so severe, so delusional, that its sufferers should be secured in padded rooms for their own protection, as well as ours.

When I ordered Shrub, I acidentally ordered the audio version rather than the book. It was even better being read by Molly with her soft Texas accent.

As for Asscroft, maybe now we can uncover the statue and bring our calico cats out of the closet (so to speak).

... who has all kinds of bizarre demands, and his family are terrified to contradict him in case he destroys the world!


That stuff about Ashcroft building that barbed-wire sculpture of the Statue of Liberty in his barn -- and demanding that all the DOJ employees learn his awful "eagle" song -- and insisting his Canadian counterpart accept a coat-rack he'd made himself. Eccentricity is great, but when it's coupled with a tyrannical misuse of power, it's scary!

and should be repealed.

in mayer and abramson's 'strange justice' they recount how clarence thomas, while a member of john danforth's missouri attorney general's office staff would taunt and goad ashcroft until the stiffnecked goof nearly went nuts....lol