{"id":317,"date":"2007-05-20T11:37:24","date_gmt":"2007-05-20T16:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/05\/20\/dash-it-ashcroft\/"},"modified":"2007-05-20T11:37:38","modified_gmt":"2007-05-20T16:37:38","slug":"dash-it-ashcroft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/05\/dash-it-ashcroft\/","title":{"rendered":"Dash it, Ashcroft"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up during the first administration of the second Bush, I was taught that John Ashcroft was the anti-attorney general. Both his foes and his supporters seemed to agree that he was a proud religious-right zealot in terms of God-first, Constitution-maybe, and the remaining job description he got from the president was, “Watch my back, Jack.”<\/p>\n

This past week, in sworn testimony before a congressional committee we learn the former senior law-enforcement official of America had a backbone<\/a>. Fortunately for history, he also had a bad gall bladder.<\/p>\n

Former Deputy AG James Comey testified that the administration wanted to extend the wiretap free-for-all. Apparently, Ashcroft thought the initial post-9\/11 period of caution had ended and that the United States could begin to return to liberty. But due to surgery he temporarily handed his post over to Comey. Top Bush aides Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales (who was to succeed Ashcroft), sought to lobby Ashcroft to support extending eavesdropping without search warrants and similar constitutional restraints.<\/p>\n

Card and Gonzales saw Ashcroft in post-op intensive care, who said, “No!” And Ashcroft said, “Besides, I can’t endorse it, I’m off sick this week.” Well, words to that effect. If you don’t believe the Post<\/em><\/a>, then check this at other news sources. No one’s denying it, and the president was asked and refused to say if he ordered Andy and Allie to call on the patient.<\/p>\n

I’d like to apologize to the Missourian John Ashcroft on behalf of all the blue reds in the country. May I speak for all the Fayetteville liberals? I don’t have clout among them, either, so he’ll just have to accept my acknowledgment of misunderestimating his knowledge of law, study of the Constitution and patriotism toward democratic ideals on behalf of all living creatures of my home, Shady Hill. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up during the first administration of the second Bush, I was taught that John Ashcroft was the anti-attorney general. Both his foes and his supporters seemed to agree that he was a proud religious-right zealot in terms of God-first, Constitution-maybe, and the remaining job description […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":347,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/08\/merge-merge-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":317,"position":0},"title":"Merge, Merge Left","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"WASHINGTON (Wire Services)\u2014 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday, driven from office after a standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence. 'I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father\u2019s best days,' said Gonzales, the son\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":497,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/07\/mallets-reforethought\/","url_meta":{"origin":317,"position":1},"title":"Mallets Reforethought","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The story of the June 14, 1986, croquet match played by former Arkansas Attorney General Steve Clark was so memorable to me I did not bother to check the facts when I summarized it last week. I had documents, I kept them in a file -- a real manila paper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/croquet-0686-lg-res-300x211.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/05\/thrust-parry-and-the-other-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":317,"position":2},"title":"Thrust, Parry and the Other One","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"By which is meant, when you withdraw the rapier to prepare to strike again, as parry means to deflect and thrust is thrust. Crossing swords naturally refers to former President Carter's blunt criticism over the weekend of current President Bush, particularly his foreign policy. Can't get harsher than say \"the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6265,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2019\/01\/2000-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":317,"position":3},"title":"2,000 Words","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Main photo NBC News,\u00a0inset photo Snopes.com \"A picture is worth a thousand words.\" This is my Facebook profile photo and cover photo for Sunday. Can't stomach it for more than that nor wish others to deal with it longer either. \"Revulsion\" is not an impeachable offense for Donald J. Trump,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photos of Trump about to welcome Clemson football team with silver, candles and prepackaged fast food, and a photo from Snopes of Roger Stone's Nixon tattoo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8218,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2025\/12\/presumptive\/","url_meta":{"origin":317,"position":4},"title":"How Presumptive Thou Art","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Holidays and Holy Days I'd like to thank the governor, the honorable Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for giving my colleagues in Arkansas state government and me Friday off, well, outside of first-responders and the like. Holiday? Actually, that was Thursday, Christmas, making this 26th of December similar to the day after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education, Coarsely"","block_context":{"text":"Education, Coarsely","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/education-coarsely\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Twelve Hanukkah candles plus the shammash helper candle are arranged on a typical nine-spot menorah.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":156,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/02\/recipe-for-leadership\/","url_meta":{"origin":317,"position":5},"title":"Recipe for leadership","author":"Ben S. 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News item: Walter Sheib, White House chef for over a decade, is resigning \"to pursue other opportunities.\" At a period when departing Cabinet officials are being replaced, amid allegations about an administration cooking the books in intelligence and Social Security, now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}