Posted on 11/11/2004 8:33:01 AM PST by OESY
...The former Missouri senator decided to step down, as it was widely rumored he would, at the close of President Bush's first term. His resignation letter, running five pages, said the Justice Department would best be served by "new leadership and fresh inspiration."
Perhaps so, but there's no doubting that the agency was more than well-served by Ashcroft during his historic tenure — which saw the necessary enactment of the much-maligned Patriot Act in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks....
This even though Ashcroft was forced to spend an inordinate amount of time on the defensive, answering the outlandish charges of his liberal critics that he was intent on trampling Americans' civil liberties in the fight to protect this country from future threats of terrorism.
Take the campaign by the nation's librarians, who insisted that Ashcroft's gumshoes were about to run roughshod through the stacks, invading the privacy of every American in search of home-grown terrorists.
...This despite the fact that, as Ashcroft noted, the Justice Department "has neither the staffing, the time, nor the inclination to monitor the reading habits of Americans."
From the moment he was nominated, Ashcroft was targeted by liberal Democrats — who suddenly saw extremism in his two-term record in the U.S. Senate.
They refused to believe him when he promised to enforce laws with which he disagreed....
Indeed, the Patriot Act — and the skillful way in which Ashcroft enforced its powerful provisions, without a hint of overzealous prosecution — is a key reason why Americans are safer today than they were three years ago.
And why communication between intelligence and law-enforcement agencies is so much improved.
President Bush... paid tribute to Ashcroft's performance, saying: "John has served our nation with honor, distinction, and integrity."
Ashcroft is a patriot.
We wish him well.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Do you really have to ask that question?
No religious nuts were firebombed during Ashcroft's tenure. In the US you have a right to be a nut.
No religious nuts were firebombed during Ashcroft's tenure. In the US you have a right to be a nut.
Oops, impatience is as impatience does...
Whenever some leftist rants about how Bush administratin, John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act have destroyed our civil liberties...I always ask them just how many people the Bush administration, through John Ashcroft, have Waco-ed in this country. They don't answer. In fact, they become suddenly intent on something else.
Uh, don't forget the thousands of fraudulent Chinese espionage front-companies she allowed to be set up in the U.S., and the tidal wave of Chinese espionage agents "Students" that flooded into our Universities graduate programs to pilfer all the technology and defense secrets they could. Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore are just a small example of the overall effort they are engaged in. And this all flourished under Reno/Xlinton's watch. And what about the Chinese money sent to bolster both the Xlinton '96/Gore 2000 /Kerry '96 election campaigns???
None Dare Call it Treason.
Indeed. Thanks for the ping!
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