Posted on: Wednesday, November 10, 2004

EDITORIAL
Find less ideological A.G. than Ashcroft

For a president who promised to be a "uniter" rather than a "divider," George Bush could hardly have chosen a more controversial and polarizing figure than John Ashcroft for attorney general.

Ashcroft, who announced his resignation yesterday, was a man who allowed those sentiments to dictate his decisions as the nation's chief law enforcement officer.

It was not Ashcroft's choice that he had the unfortunate task of being attorney general in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, when sweeping security concerns left little time for introspection or nuanced policy-making.

And we have deep sympathy for the terrible burden he was asked to pick up in those days, weeks and months following the attacks.

Unfortunately, our post-9/11 condition fit perfectly with Ashcroft's world view, which tended to view things in black and white, good and evil.

It is crucial that Bush choose as a successor someone who has a more balanced view of the tension between security and individual rights, between personal liberty and social stability.

In word, Ashcroft suggested he understood this delicate balance.

For instance, in commanding his troops to step up their efforts on the war on terrorism, he urged them "to think outside the box, but not outside the Constitution."

But in practice, Ashcroft's leadership left many wondering whether he truly believed what he said.

The Patriot Act, which was in large measure his creation, pushed traditional civil liberties restraints to their very limits.

Through the federal legal system, Ashcroft pushed his personal ideological agenda on issues ranging from the medical use of marijuana through government access to private abortion records.

Just this week, in a case entitled Ashcroft v. Oregon, the Bush administration is pursuing a case that would block the country's only law allowing doctors to assist terminally ill patients to die.

It is imperative that President Bush choose as Ashcroft's replacement someone who understands that his or her role, as attorney general, is to put the rule of law and the Constitution always above personal beliefs.