Ashcroft pick stirs general dissension Views split on his commitment to law

Sunday, January 7th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON â€“ The battle lines are drawn over President-elect George W. Bush's selection of staunch conservative John Ashcroft as attorney general, setting the stage for what could be the most contentious Senate confirmation battle in years.

No Bush appointment has proved more controversial, raising the ire of women's groups as well as civil-rights, gun-control, abortion-rights and gay-rights organizations.

Mr. Ashcroft's defenders say that he has a solid record as a state attorney general, governor and senator and that he will enforce the law.

Opponents are marshaling a coalition to convince the Senate that Mr. Ashcroft, a close ally of religious conservatives, holds views too extreme to permit him to become the chief enforcer of the nation's laws, including:

â€¢ His effort to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape or incest, and to have federal law state that life begins at fertilization, which could render some contraceptives illegal.

â€¢ His crusade to defeat the nomination to the federal bench of a black judge and his votes against affirmative action and hate-crimes legislation â€“ actions that led some civil-rights leaders to accuse Mr. Ashcroft of racial bias.

"It's hard to think of a more divisive choice for attorney general," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

The Bush transition has assembled a veteran team to shepherd Mr. Ashcroft through the battle, led by Fred McClure of Dallas, a longtime Bush family adviser and field marshal for earlier confirmation victories, most notably Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

"My current view of this is: As folks get the chance to know the man John Ashcroft ... they will have a difficult time painting him as something other than what he is," Mr. McClure said. "Once that's done, I think we'll know what a man of character and integrity he is."

Mr. Ashcroft has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill, visiting with former colleagues from both parties, particularly those on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel will hold the confirmation hearings, unscheduled but possibly starting before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Mr. Bush.

Even as they're blanketing Senate offices with a blizzard of calls, e-mails and paper, opponents acknowledge that the odds are against them. Senate Democrats say privately that the 58-year-old former Missouri attorney general and governor, who lost his Senate seat in November, is virtually assured of confirmation.

"I would expect that he'll be confirmed with many votes to spare," said one Senate Democratic aide. Defeat of Cabinet appointments is rare, the last one occurring in 1989 when former Texas Sen. John Tower's nomination as defense secretary was rejected amid reports of womanizing and drinking.

Some Ashcroft foes, however, believe they can torpedo the nomination.

"I don't subscribe at all to the view that this is impossible," said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. "But win or lose, this battle has to be fought."

The president-elect says he remains confident his nominee will pass muster.

Ashcroft defenders are attempting to turn tables on the critics, accusing them of political motives and seeking to gin up financial contributions. "There's no reason not to confirm him except for some politics being played by people at the fringe," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said on CNN's Inside Politics.

It's not about politics, the opponents insist, but about positions taken over a lengthy career in public service.

"Sadly, Ashcroft's public record demonstrates a lack of commitment to equal justice under law," said Judith Lichtman, president of the National Partnership of Women and Families.

Some question the willingness of the deeply religious Mr. Ashcroft to enforce laws he may morally oppose. One example is whether he would enforce federal laws protecting abortion clinics from harassment or violence. And groups such as the NAACP believe that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division could be hamstrung.

"Senator Ashcroft has taken very public positions in opposition to many of the laws of the land involving women's rights, civil rights," Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said recently on ABC's Good Morning America. "The question is, can he enforce those laws even though he has acknowledged in public that he disagrees with them?"

Mr. Ashcroft "absolutely" would enforce all laws, including those related to abortion, said Bush transition spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.

But the attorney general has broad discretion to decide with how much vigor certain statutes are enforced, says Janet Reno, the current officeholder. "The law certainly gives everyone a wide range of space to determine issues in," she said recently.

Former Justice Department official Clint Bolick of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm, predicts there will be little overall change. "The Justice Department is largely an agency on autopilot in terms of its overall mandate," he said.

The attorney general oversees a department of more than 130,000 people that has broad reach into Americans' lives. Within the Justice Department are the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshal's Service, the Bureau of Prisons, U.S. attorney's offices and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Where Mr. Ashcroft may differ from his predecessor is unknown. The nominee is not granting interviews, and Mr. McClure has advised his client not to discuss his views in advance of confirmation hearings. But there are a number of hot-button areas in which Mr. Ashcroft could chart a far different course. Among them:

Civil rights

Civil-rights leaders are strongly opposed to Mr. Ashcroft's nomination because he has voted against affirmative action and hate-crimes initiatives.

"He's a very bad choice," said Hilary Shelton, head of the NAACP's Washington office. "Would you hire someone that doesn't believe in what they are doing to do a job that is so important to so many people? I think the answer is no."

But, said Mr. Bush, "There's no question in my mind that he will uphold and enforce the law, the civil-rights laws on the books of America."

If confirmed, Mr. Ashcroft will face an immediate high-profile case: the ongoing Justice Department investigation of complaints by the NAACP, civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson and others that black voters in Florida were disenfranchised because of voting irregularities in November's presidential election.

Anger among blacks over Mr. Ashcroft's nomination centers largely on his battle to derail the elevation to the federal bench of Ronnie White, a black jurist on the Missouri Supreme Court. The Senate rejected the nomination after Mr. Ashcroft labeled him "pro-criminal."

Supporters of Mr. Ashcroft say his opposition to Justice White was mischaracterized as racially motivated. "He does not have a discriminatory bone in his body," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Supporters also note that when he was Missouri governor, Mr. Ashcroft signed a law creating a holiday to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King, appointed a black woman to a state judgeship and helped save Lincoln University, which was founded by black soldiers.

But two other episodes rankle black leaders: Mr. Ashcroft's comments to Southern Partisan magazine hailing Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson as "Southern patriots" and his acceptance of an honorary degree from Bob Jones University, which until recently banned interracial dating.

Abortion

Few in public life have compiled as strong an anti-abortion record as Mr. Ashcroft, who opposes abortion except when the mother's life is at stake. He is hailed as a hero in anti-abortion circles for his efforts to reduce abortion and end federal funding.

Abortion-rights groups question whether he would permit vigorous enforcement of a 1994 law credited with reducing violence directed against abortion clinics. They suspect he would use his job to press for reversal of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion, and would campaign to stock the judiciary with anti-abortion jurists.

Ms. Michelman of NARAL draws no comfort from the Bush team's assertion that Mr. Ashcroft would enforce the law. "Given his record, I don't know how anyone can really count on Senator Ashcroft to truly interpret the law in a way that protects women's lives and health and rights," she said.

Judicial nominations

Liberal-interest groups believe that Mr. Ashcroft would wield substantial authority in pressing for the appointment of conservative, anti-abortion jurists for the Supreme Court and the federal bench. Mr. Bush has said he doesn't favor litmus tests for judges but would appoint strict constructionists such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Nan Aron, head of the liberal Alliance for Justice, said Mr. Ashcroft "has shown he's willing to play politics with the judiciary."

In a 1999 op-ed piece, Mr. Ashcroft wrote: "I evaluate nominees on the basis of merit."

Anti-trust

The Reno Justice Department has had an unusually active antitrust division, capped by its huge lawsuit against Microsoft.

The government's lower-court victory, in which a judge ordered the software giant's breakup, is under appeal. Some antitrust experts predict that the incoming administration would enter into settlement talks if the appeals court rules against the government.

Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Bush have not revealed how they would act with regard to the Microsoft litigation. But the president-elect's disdain for the flurry of antitrust lawsuits filed by the Clinton administration lead many to believe he'd abandon the case.

"You have to be concerned when ... you have George W., during the primary in Washington state, practically suggesting he'd drop the antitrust case," said James Love, director of the anti-Microsoft Consumer Project on Technology.

Tobacco

Congressional Republicans have looked askance at the Justice Department's pursuit of a multibillion-dollar racketeering case against the tobacco industry. Anti-smoking groups think that Mr. Ashcroft would abandon the litigation or strike a settlement favorable to manufacturers.

"The case is on track. It is fully engaged, and for him to withdraw the lawsuit, I think, would be a very, very serious decision on his part," said William Corr of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Their concern results largely from Mr. Ashcroft's 1998 effort to help kill a bill by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would have raised cigarette taxes by $1.10 a pack and mandated sharp marketing restrictions.

Mr. Bush has questioned the validity of the Justice lawsuit, which came on the heels of the states' $246 billion tobacco settlements. While he has not said whether he would scuttle the litigation, tobacco stocks have risen with the belief that the new administration would do so.

Gun control

Handgun Control Inc. and its allies are opposing the nomination, pointing to Mr. Ashcroft's votes against all new gun-control legislation. They claim he is "joined at the hip" with the National Rifle Association, which spent more than $339,000 on his failed Senate re-election bid.

"John Ashcroft will place the health and welfare of the NRA and its gun industry allies over that of the American public," said Violence Policy Center legislative director Kristen Rand.

"What this means is simple: More assault weapons, less-vigorous enforcement of federal gun laws, and a rollback of the Brady law," said Ms. Rand, referring to the federal law that requires criminal background checks and a waiting period for handgun purchases.

The group noted that he supports the NRA's push for immediate destruction of gun purchaser background check records currently kept by the Justice Department for six months.

Mr. Bush supports a key initiative sought by gun-control groups: closing the so-called gun show loophole that allows buyers of firearms at gun shows to forgo background checks. Mr. Ashcroft voted to defeat such legislation.

As Missouri attorney general, Mr. Ashcroft was a "strong enforcer" of the state's gun-control laws, said Ms. Tucker, the Bush transition spokeswoman.

"There's been a lot of assumptions made about what kind of leader he is, based on theory, not based in fact," she said. "Once the facts are out there, people will understand why President-elect Bush named him to be attorney general."