Replies

He is a liability because of the secret arrests and detentions in violation of the 4th Amendment, as well as his unreasonable and undiscriminating application of immigration laws (which is costing the gov't huge amounts of money btw).

For example, he has placed requirements on the Board of Immigration Appeals that essentially eviscerates the purpose of that Board; the result is that Circuit Courts are now flooded with cases previously handled by the BIA. When the BIA rubber-stamps an unreasonable Immigration Judge decision (which it is being forced to do now by Ashcroft), not only does it drive up the cost of the government lawyers and clog the courts, but it also forces the government to often pay the costs of litigation to the petitioners in these cases. It's a huge waste of time and resources, and makes a lot of people very justifiably angry (and incidentally sends more than a few asylum applicants back to their nations of origin where they are tortured and killed). I'm as aware of the necessities of defending the nation from terrorism as anyone, and even in this context I find the actions of the A.G. to be outrageous.

For a conservative trying to convince a nonpolitical person of the virtues of voting R, the AG's actions in this and other arenas validate the stereotype of conservatives as hateful, provincial, and cruel.