CONSERVATIVES TURN ON ASHCROFT

Drudge Report ^ | 07/23/2002 | Matt Drudge

[Pokey78]

CONSERVATIVES TURN ON ASHCROFT
Tue Jul 23 2002 20:58:38 ET

Many religious conservatives who were instrumental in pressing President Bush to appoint John Ashcroft as attorney general -- now say they have become deeply troubled by his actions, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report in a blistering Page One spread on Wednesday.

"His religious base is now quite troubled by what he's done," Grover Norquist tells the TIMES's Neil Lewis.

MORE

Several Bush advisers have begun complaining that Ashcroft has projected himself too often and too forcefully. More significantly, they say privately that he seems to be overstating the evidence of terrorist threats, the paper claims.

Conservtives cite Ashcroft's anti-terrorist positions as enhancing the kind of government power that they instinctively oppose.

Norquist: "If there hadn't been this big government problem, Ashcroft would have been talked about as the Bush successor. Instead, the talk is that 'too bad we pushed for him."'

Ashcroft was also criticized by some in the administration for declaring early on that the case of John Walker Lindh was a major terrorist case, the paper reports. Some officials in the Justice Department believed that the attorney general made needlessly harsh public comments about Lindh. The case came to an abrupt end last week, when Lindh pleaded guilty to two felonies and the department dropped the most severe terrorism-related charges against him, treating him as a far less important figure than depicted by the attorney general.

Developing...

[Lazamataz]

Maybe you need to view the Daniel Pearl tape again to see what we are up against.

We are capable of the same thing. All humans are capable of great horror.

Every country has in it, those who would lead us to a Stalinist state; a Mussolini state. EVERY country. This one included.

While we sit here debating the color of the sky, our enemies are capable and willing to repeat 9/11.

I'm sorry, I don't view the defense of the Constitution, Due Process under Law, and the Bill of Rights anything similar to debating the hue of the atmosphere.

If you are still alive the day after, will you dare and express your ACLU arrogance and ignorance.

So I'm either "with you or against you", huh? That is a false dilemma. I am with the fight against terrorism, but against the slide into a fascist police state.

[Lazamataz]

You and that actor guy that promised to leave. He welshed, and I am quite sure you will as well. It must be marvelous to type anything your heart's desire without consequence. It is almost a sociopath's nirvana in a sort of metaphorical way.

You are talking to a decorated veteran and one of the most loyal and conservative men you have ever met when you talk to Fred. Listen up and you might learn a thing or two.

[Destructor]

"Several Bush advisers have begun complaining that Ashcroft has projected himself too often and too forcefully. More significantly, they say privately that he seems to be overstating the evidence of terrorist threats, the paper claims."

Wait 'til the ragheads detonate a dirty nuke somewhere in the America. They'll all be screamin' at Ashcroft, "Why didn't you do more to prevent it!" Or perhaps, "Ashcroft knew!"

[ContemptofCourt]

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

In the eyes of Mr Ben Franklin, Freepers have become sheep. One day, they will wake up in the U.S.S.A. and ask "what happened".

Good grief.

[Lazamataz]

The loonies are screaming. Why are you believing them and not the voices telling you we'll be okay?

1. Civil Forfeiture: Even if the Government drops charges against you, your house and car may still be forfeited.
2. 50% tax rate and climbing: Even in Feudal societies, they dared not take more than one third of a subject's income each year.
3. Increasing and encroaching gun control: Distrust a government that hates your guns.
4. Case-by-case suspension of Habeas Corpus: Now the government is empowered to call you an UnPerson and hold you indefinitely, without a charge.
5. Suppression of Political Speech: 60 days before an election you cannot pool your money with other people to tell the world what a politician's record has been.
6. Brownshirt TIPS squads: The government has turned us against one another in the name of the fight against terror.

I dunno. I'm thinking Fred's a beaming-faced optimist.

[joyful1]

Yes, every country, at one time or another, is capable of producing the terrors of the Daniel Pearl tape; but radical Muslims are staring us in the face today.

You don't understand the first thing about the Constitution. It guarantees me life...we must fight this threat or there will not even be life.

There are no two ways about it. We must do everything in our power to stop the terrorists. There is no time for arguing.

[Lazamataz]

In the eyes of Mr Ben Franklin, Freepers have become sheep. One day, they will wake up in the U.S.S.A. and ask "what happened". Good grief.

It's truly amazing to see so many people CLAMOR for the chains.

[Lazamataz]

There are no two ways about it. We must do everything in our power to stop the terrorists.

Including destroying the very bedrock concepts of our country?

There is no time for arguing.

Balderdash.

[DreamWeaver]

By the way, how do you know a criminal when you see one?

That's just it, I don't know one when I see one, so, that leaves the question, how does a person report one ?? Also, about the hair standing up etc when you see a terrorist, why didn't that happen to all the passengers traveling with that shoe bomber, the flight school owners and the list goes on.

[Dick Bachert]

"...the idea of liberty must grow weak in the hearts of men
before it can be killed at the hands of tyrants." T.Jefferson

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Assembly, Nov. 11, 1755

"Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt, 1759-1806

[Lazamataz]

Shush, you. There are terrorists around and these radical ideas give aid and comfort to those people. ;^)

[TC Rider]

And yet, we DID NOT declare war. Like it or not, we are not at war. Look it up, if you must.

I don't need little Tommy Dashole to tell me whether or not we are at war. I've figured it out on my own.

You are free to wait till Tommy, Hillary, Teddy and Johnny Edwards give you the OK, just don't get in the way of those of us who care about America.

[OldFriend]

Using Norquist as an example of 'conservatives' is like using John McCain as representative of Republicans..........

Consider the source!!

[billbears]

And I am within 5 miles of every place you have spoken of and I do have a problem with spying on neighbors. As I have said before sure it might start out with good intentions but it won't stay that way for long.

And please don't give me the 'we'll keep it in check' line. Every power that the general government has assumed upon itself in the long run ends up being misused in one form or another. It's mosques now and terrorists now, but 10 years from now when Bush is out of office what happens when it's churches and passive dissidents? Do we turn in those that disagree with the government over strong Christian religious convictions?

[hchutch]

And so, for the sake of constitutional purity, you'd rather let a possible attack go unreported until it happens?

The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

[ContemptofCourt]

Hahahahahahahahahahhahahaha

Who is our enemy? "Terrorism"? That is like saying that I can catch the wind in my hand.

[MeekOneGOP]

So why don't you fly your flag, btw?.........

[sport]

My copmpaint with ashcroft is not so much what he has done, it is what he has not done.
Such as not going after the clinton crime cartel.

I have said and still say that President Bush is going to be very sorry that he did not order the clintons and their henchmen prosecuted to the full extent of the laws they violated.

There is going to be a price to pay and he will be one of those who pay it.

The United States of America will be the other.

The clintons and their worshippers are a cancer on the body of humanity.

I fully understand that there will not be enough time in eternity to prosecute each criminal act, but they can start.

[wallcrawlr]

You know as well as I do that the Gov allows/disallows many things to the American people that we think are our rights.
No matter what the Constitution may say.