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.
But apparently it never occurred to either one of you for him to move a few feet away.
Considering who Ashcroft replaced, I'd say he did a helluva job.
Do you always believe a story written by leftist with a politican chip on their shoulder only because "it's not implasible"
Strange Justice was CRAP
If the statue was already covered by Janet Reno before Ashcroft arrived, how is it that we have photos of Ashcroft in front of the uncovered statues?
....."Without a doubt the absolute worst Atty. Gen. since the Nixon Saturday Night Massacre."........
Uh, I think that you forgot about the Madame of Waco!
"It is rather childish for you libs to judge Ashcrofts stint as head of the Justice Department on this bullshit and rehash it at this late date."
I thought it was rather childish for photographers to dive to the floor to get this angle on Ed Meese and Ashcroft. I also thought both of them were tightass neoPuritans, whose appointment to run the DOJ was the height of irony, right up there with putting Bobby Kennedy there.
Oops, Timmy, guess you'll have to put up or shut up. What's not to like about the source of the story now?
I'm sure they could still get the angle to have the same image.
Lots. I stand by my original comment. Missouri does not have a "Justice Department", they have an Attorney General's Office. And John Ashcroft was such a moderate when he was in Missouri that the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the communist Riverfront Times endorsed him for his second term as governor, while conservative stalwart Phyllis Schafley condemned him. The story is ridiculous on its face and sounds like an internet legend, attempted face-saving beside the point. And if the book "Strange Justice" really has such a story (which I doubt - type it in here, please, with page number), it's just another stupid, leftist lie from the left-wing author.
I will not hold my breath waiting for confirmation from either of you.
Lessee, the original story was:
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.
It was subsequently corrected to state that: Ashcroft and Thomas both worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office in the mid-1970's. The Missouri AG at the time was John Danforth. I did get the location and perhaps the relative status of the two individuals wrong. The events I mentioned are detailed in the book Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas. You may find fault with this book, but the story is not implausible.
It seems to me, Timmy, that your retort doesn't refute any of that. I'm not buying Strange Justice to research the issue, but I don't have to--the statements in the book are elsewhere on the net: "Thomas liked to taunt another member of the office, who was prim and painfully shy, by making outrageous, gross, and at times off-color remarks. '...He couldn't help but to needle the guy--he just liked to get under his skin,'" said a co-worker. "The target of Thomas's taunting was John C. Ashcroft,"...Another co-worker interviewed by the authors of "Strange Justice" who also remembered such episodes described Ashcroft as "a tightly wound, straitlaced teetotaler...[he] was easily flustered by Thomas." Ashcroft's discomfort "apparently encouraged Thomas to goad him further," the co-worker noted."
The book has only 'co-workers' sourced, but the authors are WSJ reporters. I tend to doubt WSJ reporters and unnamed sources. Two reasons to dispute the story right there--but you didn't put forward any reason at all in your 'rebuttal' post. You simply 'stood by your original comment,' which had nothing to do with the corrected post.
One would suppose that this would be easily verified by anyone who had seen the actual friendship between these two before Thomas' appointment hearings, which have supposedly prompted a change in his behavior. There don't seem to be many of these folks around talking on the issue. Obviously, Ashcroft and Thomas are still friendly. But this kind of thing would be hard to confirm even if they weren't.
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The cameras are mobile. The photographers worked so that they could get Ashcroft and the breasts in the same shot. It was a game.
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