What, then, does Ashcroft’s record say about what he will bring to the office? The Christian Coalition and other conservative organizations consistently rate him as perfect; progressive groups give him a blank score on issues ranging from the environment to reproductive and civil rights to gun control. “There are two things you find in the middle of the road. A moderate and a dead skunk, and I don’t want to be either one of those,” Ashcroft said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Aug. 25, 1998). He also wrote to Human Events: The National Conservative Weekly to repudiate suggestions that he supported abortions in cases of rape and incest, and insisted that if he could pass one law, it would be to ban all abortions. He sued the National Organization of Women because they wanted to boycott Missouri for its failure to sign the Equal Rights Amendment. He kept litigating until the US Supreme Court ordered the case closed. He once said that all Americans should be armed to protect themselves from the “tyrannical [United States] Government.”

Ashcroft was Missouri’s attorney general for many years. During those years, he rolled back advancements made since the civil rights movement. When a school decided to implement a voluntary racial integration plan, he moved to block it, suing the school! Ashcroft was also governor of MO. In those years, he signed into law, among other things, a bill that practically legalizes violent attacks on abortion clinics; the law is currently being challenged. He then moved to the U.S. Senate, co-sponsoring in the 105th Congress an amendment to the Constitution (S.J. Res. 49, the “Human Life Amendment”) and a proposed federal statute (S. 2135, the “Human Life Act”) that would criminalize contraception as well as all forms of abortion. He believes that women should die even when their fetus has no chance of survival.

This anti-dancing religious fundamentalist is no stranger to the world of racists. He accepted an honorary degree from and delivered a commencement speech at Bob Jones University, whose anti-Catholic, interracial date-banning policies should infuriate every sensible American. He claimed as late as February 2000 that he didn’t know about the college’s policies. (W., anyone?) Ashcroft was Missouri Attorney General when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion denying tax exempt status to Bob Jones University for its racist policies. Ashcroft’s job was to read and consider landmark Supreme Court rulings. It was a major political event inflicting a major black eye on the Reagan administration in 1983. Not only that, but Ashcroft nominated Carl Esbeck, a defender of BJU, to Missouri’s Supreme Court. Ashcroft also told The Southern Partisan that “you’ve got a heritage of...defending Southern patriots like...Davis.” This is the same Davis who insisted that “slavery’s origin was Divine Decree.” This magazine offered a T-shirt that celebrated the assassination of President Lincoln with the words of his murderer.

Ashcroft voted against a program to discourage teenage smoking, proposed by John McCain. He was the only Senator, Democratic or Republican, who did so in committee. He was also “concerned that the DOJ lawsuit against the tobacco industry could set an unwise precedent leading to the federal government filing lawsuits against countless other legal industries.” He opposed James Hormel’s nomination as ambassador because Hormel is gay. His rationale? “He had recruited me, when I was a student in college, to go to the University of Chicago Law School [where Mr. Hormel was then an assistant dean].” Ashcroft referred to Brady (of the Brady bill) as “the leading enemy” of responsible gun owners.

When Judge Ronnie White, of the Missouri Supreme Court, was nominated to the federal branch, Ashcroft denigrated White as having shown “a tremendous bent toward criminal activity.” But in 59 capital cases before the Missouri court, he had voted 18 times to reverse the death sentence. Ten of those 18 the court was unanimously for reversal. Ashcroft never even question White during the hearings about the two cases with which he said he had a problem. Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania told Judge White the other day, “The Senate owes you an apology.” White was black and pro-choice. Ashcroft opposed a nominee who was the first woman to head the California Bar Association and whom Orrin Hatch recommended — supposedly because she promoted pro bono legal work for the poor! He voted against the first Asian (female) to the federal branch. He opposed 2 Surgeon General nominees for their pro-choice stance.

Ashcroft voted against funding for AIDS research, to weaken the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, and to shut down the government in 1999 (the last act by himself). He wants to abolish Social Security, stop any anti-tobacco efforts, and to eliminate the National Endowment for the Art. He supported no fewer than seven proposed constitutional amendments (none of which was adopted by Congress), including one that would alter the ratification process!