-Caveat Lector-
Nasty prejudiced words. The truth is the opposite of this piece.
On Sat, 13 Jan 2001 15:54:16 EST William Shannon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
> http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10323
> Ashcroft a Threat to Freedom of Press
> Jason Vest, <A HREF="http://www.alternet.org/">AlterNet</A>
> January 10, 2001
>
> I have veered from regarding John Ashcroft as an amusing piece of
> political
> Americana to seeing him as a bona fide threat to the First Amendment
> since I
> first encountered him in 1992. I was covering the Republican
> National
> Convention in Houston for what is now the Bloomington, Indiana
> Independent
> and found myself, along with a handful of other hacks, in a room
> where a few
> dozen self-described "Evangelical Conservatives" had gathered. When
> a
> colleague and I walked in, the meeting had commenced, and a prayer
> circle was
> underway. As is often the case in these settings, the exultation of
> the
> Almighty was anything but brief. I was slouching towards
> somnambulance as the
> appeal droned on and on, when a verbal thunderclap jolted me back to
> reality.
> The speaker's modulation had not changed (his timbre was as
> stupifyingly
> monotone as it gets). What jarred me from my increasingly
> narcoleptic state
> was the substance of a particular comment the speaker the made. My
> notes
> don't specify what the preface to his section of homily was, but I
> managed to
> record this: "... the people of America will see through the
> distortion of
> the printed page, and that those in the media would join us to
> spread the
> truth of His word." I blinked in amazement; a glimpse towards my
> colleagues
> confirmed that I had not imagined it. "Who the hell is this guy?" I
> asked
> one. "That's John Ashcroft, the governor of Missouri," someone
> replied. I was
> both amused and offended; not only did it seem an amazingly craven
> act --
> taking a shot at ol' debbbil "liberal media" whilst cowering behind
> the
> shield of faith, head bowed and eyes closed, refusing to do the
> ostensible
> enemy even the courtesy of eye contact -- but it seemed a gross
> violation of
> the unwritten rules of engagement between politicos and journos.
> It's one
> thing to get pissy over a piquant question on an issue, but praying
> for us
> because we're not plying our wordsmithery in the service of a deity?
> After
> the session broke up I rushed for the gov and asked him if he was
> planning on
> making his prayer for the media a staple of his repertoire, as I was
> sure it
> would only endear him to the fourth estate as a sagacious politician
> worthy
> of respect and relevance. He shot me a look in response that I can
> only
> describe as un-Christian and stalked away. After that experience, I
> was
> inclined to dismiss Ashcroft as a sort of bemusing walking
> malignancy, a
> comically uncosmetic melanoma on the already-diseased American body
> politic.
> But as I watched Missouri send Ashcroft to Washington and Ashcroft
> ascend --
> courtesy of the fiscal aid of religious conservatives (as well as
> the liquor
> and tobacco lobbies) -- my amusement gave way to grave foreboding.
> With every
> act, every utterance of his, I found myself going back to that
> moment in
> Houston and shuddering, as I now fully appreciate Ashcroft's
> reality: there
> is no distinction between serving the public and serving his
> particular
> Jehovah. And that particular Jehovah seems to think that I, and
> anyone else
> who disagrees with his Apostle on Earth, is in need of some sort of
> re-education. It would be one thing if the ex-Senator (who I hope
> appreciated
> the irony of being defeated by one who died but metaphorically lived
> on in
> the hearts of a majority of Missourians) was being dispatched to
> some
> department where he could make only so much trouble, like, say,
> Commerce. But
> when one considers that Ashcroft could be responsible for enforcing
> any
> future, Americanized version of the Official Secrets Act (approved
> by both
> houses of Congress, vetoed by Clinton, but expected to come up
> again), his
> 1992 comments portend an interpretation of the law that does not
> bode well
> for the free press clause of the First Amendment. Indeed, despite
> his
> assertion that he will act as a "guardian of liberty and equal
> justice" in
> the service of the "rule of law," which he defines as something that
> "knows
> no class, sees no color and bows to no creed," his characterization
> of those
> judges who hold that a woman's legal right to choose an abortion is
> indeed
> Constitutional as "judicial despots" gives one pause. (He also
> considers
> those who try, from the Federal bench, to rectify the remnants of
> segregated
> schools, halt anti-affirmative action or anti-homosexual
> initiatives,
> "tyrannical activists," and once referred to a liberal voting block
> of the
> Supreme Court as "five ruffians in robes".) That officials of his
> party
> worked with Federal, state and local authorities last year to
> actively keep
> people from protesting against his party at its convention -- both
> by
> perimeter management and infiltration -- also bodes ill for the
> First
> Amendment's bit about freedom of assembly. And doubtless he'll
> instruct his
> minions in the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia to
> do what
> they've always done to activists who continue to agitate for the
> Federal
> Colony's emancipation: prosecute vigorously when activists
> peacefully gather
> in the Capitol Rotunda. And, from his new perch as Attorney General,
> there's
> no doubt he'll throw the full weight of the Justice Department
> behind one of
> his more insidious assaults on the First Amendment, the "charitable
> choice"
> program he slipped into the draconian 1996 Welfare Reform Act.
> Referred to by
> the decidedly bland and non-partisan National Journal as perhaps
> "the biggest
> blurring of the lines between church and state in many decades,"
> this little
> gem of a provision essentially gives Federal money to any
> faith-based
> organization to provide whatever social services it wants to the
> poor,
> addicted and afflicted, and to do so with a license to proselytize.
> Several
> legal challenges based on the program's blatant violation of the
> establishment clause are underway. But as those challenges mount,
> Ashcroft's
> congressional allies are trying to expand "charitable choice" from
> social
> services to faith-based education programs as well. Conventional
> wisdom in
> Washington holds that Ashcroft is in for a bruising, if not bloody,
> set of
> confirmation hearings, but that he'll emerge as Attorney General in
> the end.
> If, however, he does fail on the Hill, it's entirely possible he'll
> have
> another role in the Bush Administration, perhaps as special envoy to
> Iran.
> Doubtless the mullahs would find Ashcroft's brand of conservatism
> appealing.
>
>
>
>
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