January 4, 2001
IN AMERICA
Fairness for Whom?
By BOB HERBERT

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We keep hearing that George W. Bush's choice for attorney general, John Ashcroft, is a man of honor, a stalwart when it comes to matters of principle and integrity. Former Senate colleagues are frequently quoted as saying that while they disagree with his ultra-conservative political views, they consider him to be a trustworthy, fair-minded individual.

Spare me. The allegedly upright Mr. Ashcroft revealed himself as a shameless and deliberately destructive liar in 1999 when, as the junior senator from Missouri, he launched a malicious attack against a genuinely honorable man, Ronnie White, who had been nominated by the president to a federal district court seat.

Justice White was a distinguished jurist and the first black member of the Missouri Supreme Court. Mr. Ashcroft, a right-wing zealot with a fondness for the old Confederacy, could not abide his elevation to the federal bench. But there were no legitimate reasons to oppose Justice White's confirmation by the Senate. So Mr. Ashcroft reached into the gutter and scooped up a few handfuls of calumny to throw at the nominee.

He declared that Justice White was soft on crime. Worse, he was "pro- criminal." The judge's record, according to Mr. Ashcroft, showed "a tremendous bent toward criminal activity." As for the death penalty, that all-important criminal justice barometer — well, in Mr. Ashcroft's view, the nominee was beyond the pale. He said that Ronnie White was the most anti-death-penalty judge on the State Supreme Court.

Listen closely: None of this was true.

But by the time Mr. Ashcroft finished painting his false portrait of Justice White, his Republican colleagues had fallen into line and were distributing a memo that described the nominee as "notorious among law enforcement officers in his home state of Missouri for his decisions favoring murderers, rapists, drug dealers and other heinous criminals."

This was a sick episode. Justice White was no friend of criminals. And a look at the record would have shown that even when it came to the death penalty he voted to uphold capital sentences in 70 percent of the cases that came before him. There were times when he voted (mostly with the majority) to reverse capital sentences because of procedural errors. But as my colleague Anthony Lewis pointed out last week, judges appointed by Mr. Ashcroft when he was governor of Missouri voted as often as Justice White — in some cases, more often — to reverse capital sentences.

But the damage was done. Mr. Ashcroft's unscrupulous, mean-spirited attack succeeded in derailing the nomination of a fine judge. The confirmation of Justice White was defeated by Republicans in a party- line vote. The Alliance for Justice, which monitors judicial selections, noted that it was the first time in almost half a century that the full Senate had voted down a district court nominee.

The Times, in an editorial, said the Republicans had reached "a new low" in the judicial confirmation process. The headline on the editorial was "A Sad Judicial Mugging."

So much for the fair-minded Mr. Ashcroft.

A Republican senator, who asked not to be identified, told me this week that he could not justify Mr. Ashcroft's treatment of Ronnie White, but that it would be wrong to suggest that the attack on his nomination was racially motivated.

That may or may not be so. It would be easier to believe if Mr. Ashcroft b>did not have such a dismal record on matters related to race. As Missouri's attorney general he was opposed to even a voluntary plan to desegregate schools in metropolitan St. Louis.

Just last year he accepted an honorary degree from Bob Jones University, a school that is notorious for its racial and religious intolerance. And a couple of years ago, Mr. Ashcroft gave a friendly interview to Southern Partisan magazine, praising it for helping to "set the record straight" about issues related to the Civil War.

Southern Partisan just happens to be a rabid neo-Confederate publication that ritually denounces Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and other champions of freedom and tolerance in America.

This is the man George W. Bush has carefully chosen to be the highest law enforcement officer in the nation.

That silence that you hear is the sound of black Americans not celebrating.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), January 06, 2001

????

-- help (help@help.help), January 06, 2001.

Cherri -- great article. Thanks.

-- The Confederacy Lives (thanks@'pubs!.com), January 06, 2001.

Ashcroft was defeated in his race for the Senate by the widow of Missouri Democrat Governor Mel Carnahan. In 1999, Mel Carnahan apologized for his black-face appearances at Rolla's Kiwanis minstrel shows in Oct 1960. 1961 and 1962.

CA RNAHAN BLACKFACE

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), January 06, 2001.

black-face is only offensive when conservatives do it because we all know they hate blacks.

-- Mother of Jehosophat! (for@cryin'.outLoud!), January 07, 2001.

Cynical agenda

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), January 07, 2001.

Well, speaking of Aschcroft, let's talk about good ol' Jessie for a moment, shall we... There's garbage on BOTH sides, folks, not just with the conservatives!

http://chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV- 0101040097,FF.html

JACKSON DOESN'T MEET STANDARDS TO WHICH HE HOLDS OTHERS

John Kass January 4, 2001

Jesse Jackson, Chicago's own "King of Beers," is upset with President- elect George W. Bush.

Jackson doesn't like Bush's choice for attorney general, the conservative Missouri Republican and former U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft.

So Jackson is blustering and playing the race card, and warning about protests during Martin Luther King Day ceremonies later this month.

Jackson is threatening to embarrass Democratic U.S. senators who dare disagree with him and vote to confirm Ashcroft, their former colleague. Jackson says it's all about standards.

Silly me. I thought it was all about Jackson helping out his ally, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and trying to bluff Ashcroft, who just might decide to investigate how hundreds of millions of dollars in Chicago taxpayer money gets shoveled to Daley's pals.

"Those who are with the civil rights agenda must not choose collegiality over civil rights and social justice," Jackson told The Associated Press the other day.

How beautiful. Imagine, though, if Jackson held himself to the same standards he demands for others.

He's kept his mouth shut during serious racial episodes in Chicago- -incidents in which blacks were physically attacked by whites with clout. But by zipping his lip, Jackson avoided offending City Hall and the Daley organization.

These people weren't attacked by symbols or words. They were attacked by bullets and rocks. The shooters and the throwers had some measure of political influence.

But Jackson didn't lead a series of protests. He was Mr. Hush. Now, though, Jackson's demanding accountability from others.

Ashcroft's sin is simple. He defended three dead Confederates in the magazine Southern Partisan in 1998.

"Traditionalists must do more to defend Davis, Lee and Jackson," Ashcroft was quoted as saying. "We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect. Or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda."

There were other principles involved besides simple good and evil, abolition and slavery, a broad-brush right versus wrong. It was more complicated than that. The same holds true of all wars.

But Ashcroft said something that could be twisted, and Jackson and Al Sharpton--of Tawana Brawley fame--and others are happily doing the twisting.

Meanwhile, most reporters--particularly the TV kind--are too polite to mention Jackson's 1984 "Hymietown" remark, or the judgment against Sharpton for slander in the fictitious Brawley affair.

In Chicago, Jackson was strangely quiet during the aftermath of two racial incidents.

In May 1999, Police Sgt. Selles Morris, in full uniform, was attacked by a gang of drunken white teenagers on 87th Street. He made the mistake of suggesting they were drunk and telling them to go home.

So they tried to smash his skull with rocks and used the `N' word, the `F' word and other words involving skull crushing.

After the arrests, several kids were cut loose in the police station. Others were charged with simple misdemeanors.

It was an election year. Daley and the 19th Ward crew wanted this one hushed up. So it was quashed. Morris kept his mouth shut too.

So did Jackson, who, if history is any guide, is usually drawn, loudly, to such events.

In June 1999 there was another incident. Several Cook County sheriff's deputies with political connections to Sheriff Mike Sheahan enjoyed themselves at his fundraiser at Comiskey Park.

Then they enjoyed themselves some more at the Cork & Kerry tavern on Western Avenue, in the 19th Ward's Beverly neighborhood. Sheahan was there too.

Later, the five pink deputies, lubricated and armed, drove away in a big white Chevy Suburban. At 167th Street and Pulaski Road, a black couple, CTA employee Cory Simmons and his girlfriend, Dominique Mapp, made a mistake.

They inadvertently cut off the deputies. Naturally, they were chased into Robbins, where the deputies allegedly tried to kill them.

One shot blew through Simmons' window. Another blew out the dome light, a few inches from Simmons' head.

It took months to investigate. The sheriff and State's Atty. Richard Devine owe their political lives to the 19th Ward political organization.

And the deputies had so much clout, they were allowed to take promotions tests even while under investigation for attempted murder.

City Hall wanted that one shut up too. Jackson said nothing.

Jackson's sons have the exclusive Budweiser beer distributorship on the North Side, selling their product on Rush and Halsted Streets and at the stadiums. And it's hard to sell beer if City Hall orders the cops to ticket double-parked beer trucks.

So that's why I call him "King of Beers."

But there is another son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), who represents the South Side, including Robbins, where Sheahan's cops did their shooting. He's a nice kid. I like him.

The elder Jackson wasn't quiet for nothing. He was protecting his interests. He has sons in the game.

Remember what he told the AP. "Those who are with the civil rights agenda must not choose collegiality over civil rights and social justice."

It sounds nice, in context, doesn't it?

-- Deb Mc. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), January 07, 2001.

Ready, aim, fire! Let the character assinations begin.

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), January 08, 2001.

Judge Ronnie White

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), January 08, 2001.

Paracelsus-

Got a link to the actual opinion written in this case by the majority and white? This article is all spin, and certainly you are not proposing that we should agree with Ashcroft simply because of this case, right? Let us read for ourselves the evidence in the case, and the differing opinions.

Also sounds to me like defense counsel WAS inept, and probably appointed by the court. The question is wether or not this defendent had incompetent representation, or simply bad representation. If incompetent, then it can and should be retried.

Do not be so zealous in sending people to the chair. After all, we are finding many many folks previously sentenced to death are not guilty, via DNA evidence. What does this say but that in the majority of the cases these folks had terrible attorneys-court appointed or bargain basis. We learned from the OJ trial that money can buy the system.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), January 08, 2001.

Sorry Future Shock, I don't subsribe to Nexus/Lexus. The best I can do is scrounge up some spin more to your liking.

Block Ashcroft I

Block Ashcroft II

-- (Paraselsus@Pb.Au), January 08, 2001.

“He distorted Ronnie White's record and achieved a partisan 55-45 vote to reject the nomination.”

Who says he distorted Mr. White’s record? If Mr. White were white, would anyone care? Should Mr. White have been nominated because he IS an African American? Should all African American’s be automatically accepted because they ARE? Personally, when Jesse or Al speak out in opposition to the likes of Sen. Ashcroft I will vote for that person on principal. Never listen to pimps like Jackson and Sharpton…….trust me on this………their agenda is NOT yours.

-- Barry (bchbear863@cs.com), January 08, 2001.

What really scares the Left is an AG that will expose what Reno has done for 8 years.

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), January 09, 2001.