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...

[slimer]

the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report in a blistering Page One spread on Wednesday.

This is as far as I needed to read.

[SkyPilot]

The NY Times reporting conservatives turning on conservatives!
Wow,that's a first.
I was getting damn tired of all those liberals turn on liberals stories.

Wonderful!

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

I have a severe problem with Ashcroft okaying using private citizens to spy on Americans and spying on places of worship.

Yeah, and same goes for that damn neighborhood watch thingie. Whats a criminal gotta do to commit crime these days? Damn spies </scarcasm

[CreekerFreeper]

Yeah, like John Zogby, the musliam terrorist apologist.

[CreekerFreeper]

Do you think good Americans during WW2 would have turned other Americans in. I would have if they would have been suspected enemies of the United States.

[willyone]

You may change your attitude when someone decides to get even with you for something by turning your ass in to the tips police. Until Bush closes the borders this war on terrorism is just a big smokescreen to conceal the fact that he has no ideas.

[Dengar01]

Well screw them. I'm a Christian Conservative and I support John Ashcroft 100%!!!

[SoDak]

But that's precisely one of the worries I have. I do not doubt the sincerity, integrity, and utmost patriotism in Ashcroft. I worry about a RAT down the road as a future AG. On the surface, I don't think there's anything much wrong with the whole TIPS thing, it seems no more dangerous than a neighborhood watch. I worry about it being a stepping stone to further powers.

[Texasforever]

You may change your attitude when someone decides to get even with you for something by turning your ass in to the tips police

What stops that now?

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Clymerism in action.

[joyful1]

After the next terrorist attack on American soil, where many many innocant American lives will be murdered, let's see who admits to complaining about Ashcroft, national ID cards, survellience, ect.

The next topic will be internment camps.

[jwalsh07]

Please define just what a suspected terrorist would be like, just what would qualify your neighbor to be one. This is in no means being said in any offensive way, I am seriously just asking the question.

Don't worry DW, when you see one the hair on your neck will bristle, the adrenalin will pump and your sense will become sharpened. Self preservation will kick in and all qill be right with the world.

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

[jwalsh07]

Relax man, you've been militiaized. Your duty, during this war, is to report what your own good judgement would classify as possible terrorism in the making. All very constitutional and patriotic, no?

[joyful1]

The New York Times headlines its own bias.

NYT hates Ashcroft no matter what he does, and they love to shout it!

[Lazamataz]

At least he allows you the right to have gun in your home to defend yourself.

Oh, he allows me to?

I thought the Constitution said I already had the right anf the government could not infringe on it.

Damn.

[Lazamataz]

Don't worry DW, when you see one the hair on your neck will bristle, the adrenalin will pump and your sense will become sharpened. Self preservation will kick in and all qill be right with the world.

Excuse me a minute, I have to report you.

[Lazamataz]

"You may change your attitude when someone decides to get even with you for something by turning your ass in to the TIPS police"

What stops that now?

No TIPS police.

[Lazamataz]

That is because every big government-socialist-fascist-Anti Constitutional thing that is pushed by these guys is cheered loudly on FR now.

Roger that. There are people who cheer the continued indefinate holding of Jose Padilla without anyone having ever produced a criminal charge.

The evidence he is a bad man?

The government says so.

[Lazamataz]

I like Bush, but I don't fawn over him. He's 100% better than the alternative.

So I suppose we're on the road to socialism at only 50 mph instead of 100 mph.

Perfectly stated.

[joyful1]

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

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

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