Strangely, Asscroft used to be the sort of patriot that would have reacted strongly, even angrily, to anyone who would have attempted these sort of power grabs and this sort of Bill of Rights abrogation.
The fact he has done a 180 degree turn and now loudly favors a fascist state tells me they coopted him somehow. Now way he'd go against his core belief system for a few hundred thou a year.