What a boob!
Posted on 06/24/2005 4:00:24 PM PDT by Crackingham
With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years. Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall.
The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about and criticism of the deeply religious Ashcroft. The 12-foot, 6-inch aluminum statues were installed shortly after the building opened in the 1930s.
With a change in leadership at Justice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced the question: Would they stay or would they go? He regularly deflected the question, saying he had weightier issues before him.
It was Clinton A.G. Janet Reno who covered the statue with a drape. When Ashcroft came in he inquired about it & decided not to buck the establishment (lest the libs criticize him for being a hypocrite Christian or what not) but he couldn't see LEASING / RENTING the cloth that was used to cover the statue so he purchased it for pennies on the $ and the msm made hay of it.
the statue was already covered by Janet Reno before he arrived.
It wasn't a case of juvenile behavior, though. These guys want to kill your babies, take away your cigarettes, and now steal your home and toss you in the street.
First the breasts, and now the world.
I couldn't agree more.
whats so hard about moving the podium? do that instead of robing
Hmm, looks like an implant to me. Never did like those fake ones.
The issue at the heart of this piece is two works of art created for the newly-constructed Great Hall of the Department of Justice in the 1930s by German sculptor Carl Paul Jennewein: a pair of 12-1/2 foot statues representing the Spirit of Justice and the Majesty of the Law. The former is a female figure draped in a toga, with raised arms and one exposed breast; the latter is a male figure with a draped cloth covering his midsection. Press photographers over the years had sometimes taken advantage of the positioning of the statues to snap "boob in front of the boob" shots (such as a photo of Edwin Meese, Attorney General during President Reagan's second term, holding a report on pornography aloft with the partially nude female statue visible behind him). After current Attorney General John Ashcroft was captured by press cameramen in similar shots, the media reported in January 2002 that Ashcroft had ordered (or approved) the Department of Justice's spending of $8,650 for drapes to hide the two statues because he didn't like being photographed in front of them (or, worse, that Ashcroft was a embarrassingly prudish Philistine who was offended by any representation of nudity). The Department of Justice spokespeople maintained that the drapes were used not to hide the statues but to "provide a nice background for television cameras" during formal events; that the purchase had been made by a DoJ staffer on her own initiative to save the $2,000 per event cost of renting them; and that "the attorney general was not even aware of the situation." Critics held that the DoJ's disputing the issue of who actually authorized the purchase of the drapes was a smoke screen (since rental drapes were already being used to cover the statues); that the drapes have been left hanging all the time and are not put in place only when televised events are being held in the Great Hall; and that even if Attorney General Ashcroft didn't know about or authorize the purchase, he certainly didn't order the drapes removed, either.
Worthy of an RPR ping?
Hmm.. Is that a trick question?
They weren't "mocking Christians", they might have been mocking Ashcroft, who came across as somewhat straitlaced, or at least they were trying to create an ironic image.
The reporters weren't the only ones who gave Ashcroft a hard time. I recently read the following story: When Ashcroft first started working in the justice department, long before he became attorney general, he had a boss who relentlessly ridiculed his uptight attitude. The boss was Clarence Thomas.
Caption: "A Tale of Two Boobs"
What a boob!
Snopes is well known to be biased against conservatives. Just ask around.
"Yeah, man... it was THIS BIG!!!! (whooo)"
Personally, I think he made a mistake since we were entering the war on the wrong side (WWI, not WWII, any Freepers out there who forgot to read).
In any case, he received an award to study in Rome that allowed him to bow out of his remaining military service.
This guy did a lot of major stuff ~ architectural works in fact.
"who do you want to believe ... the MSM or Ashcroft?
Hmm.. Is that a trick question?"
Ashcroft: Who are you gonna believe - me or the lyin' MSM?
Ashcroft embarrassed you, too?
Why are the statues disrobed in the first place?
The deep symbolism of a bare nipple escapes me right now.
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