http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,94912,00.html
John Ashcroft's Dubious Pen Pal
Three years ago, attorney general nominee John Ashcroft wrote a friendly
note to the leader of an extremist gun-owners organization who is linked to
racist groups.
Elaine Shannon, Michael Weisskopf and Adam Zagorin report.
BY ELAINE SHANNON, MICHAEL WEISSKOPF AND ADAM ZAGORIN
Nearly three years ago, as Sen. John Ashcroft was considering a run for the
presidency, he composed a hand-written thank-you note to a man many
politicians would run from. Neatly inscribed on Ashcroft's Senate stationery,
the letter went to Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America,
a firearms lobbying group considered extremist even by many conservatives.
"Thanks to you and GOA," Ashcroft wrote, the senator planned to call for
significant changes in a juvenile-justice measure then working its way
through Congress. An original cosponsor, Ashcroft ultimately withdrew his
support for the bill because of the provision cited by GOA. There is no
evidence of further contact between Ashcroft, George W. Bush's nominee for
attorney general, and Pratt, though Ashcroft had put out feelers to GOA
activists in New Hampshire while exploring a presidential bid seven months
earlier, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Nor is there anything
unusual about a senator responding in writing to an interested citizen. But
the discovery of the senator's personal note to Pratt is likely to fuel
Democratic charges that Ashcroft is insensitive to minorities and civil
liberties. At the time Ashcroft wrote to Pratt, the Virginia-based activist
was already branded as a pariah even by those considered to the right of the
GOP: Two years earlier, he had been forced to step aside as co-chairman of
Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign after news reports of his association
with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations and militias. Launches
letter-writing campaign In May 1998, shortly after Ashcroft's letter, Pratt
had achieved some notoriety for a GOA press release following an incident in
which a 15-year-old boy in Springfield, Oregon, shot and killed his parents
and two students at his school. Pratt responded with a release headlined,
"Lesson of School Shootings: More Guns Needed at Schools." Pratt, however, is
not just involved with the GOA — he is also president of another group,
English First, an organization accused of immigrant-bashing that is part of
the conservative coalition rallying behind Ashcroft's nomination. The bill
that concerned Pratt, the Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act, proposed
tougher penalties on criminal street-gang activities. It even had the backing
of the National Rifle Association. But Pratt's far more militant GOA launched
a letter-writing campaign demanding that Ashcroft and other senators abandon
the measure. GOA objected, among other things, to a provision that would
impose stiff penalties for gun violations under the Racketeer-Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). In his letter to Pratt, Ashcroft seemed to
agree, saying, "I am working to see that the RICO provisions are stripped
from the bill... ." A version of the measure passed both houses but died in a
House-Senate conference. ACLU also opposed bill In an interview with TIME,
Pratt appeared to be proud of the Ashcroft letter, which is posted on GOA's
web site (item low on page). He noted, however, that his group gave the
senator no more than a C minus in its ratings of members of Congress and will
not support or oppose him for attorney general. Mindy Tucker, a spokesman for
the Bush transition, said Ashcroft wrote Pratt to thank him for making the
senator aware of unintended consequences of the bill. "It's an indication of
his appreciation for [Pratt's] heads-up," she said. Tucker said Ashcroft
ultimately withdrew his sponsorhip of the bill because he considered the RICO
provisions overly broad, a position she added was also taken by the liberal
ACLU. Tucker said that despite the friendly tone of Ashcroft's note — it was
headed "Dear Larry" and signed, "Thanks, John" — the senator has no personal
relationship with Pratt, whose organization, she said, opposed his 2000
reelection bid.
