Democrats: Ashcroft Faces Tough Questions
Jan. 16 -- John Ashcroft, President-elect George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general, is expected to face a tough grilling in three days of confirmation hearings that open today.
The defeat of the Ashcroft nomination, which comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, has become a top goal of a broad coalition of groups advocating issues ranging from civil rights to abortion rights to gun control.
A senior Republican familiar with the process tells ABCNEWS' John Berman that Ashcroft, a former senator, will use his opening statement to the committee to assert that, if confirmed, he will shift from being an "enactor of laws to an enforcer of laws." Responding to those who fear his strong conservative views may make it tough for him to enforce laws with which he disagrees, Ashcroft plans to stress that he "respects the rule of law" and will talk broadly about "the issues circling this nomination."
Stepping up pressure on Democrats to oppose the nomination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson used a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day appearance on Good Morning America to say the former senator poses a "real threat to Dr. King's dream."
"Ashcroft has been consistently against women's rights to setthe termination [of pregnancy], against workers' rights to organize, against environmental restrictions, for … voter suppression in St.Louis," Jackson said. "So he does not enjoy the credibility that one would expect in an attorney general."
As governor of Missouri, Ashcroft twice vetoed legislation intended to let the League of Women Voters register new voters in St. Louis, a Democratic-leaning city. Ashcroft cited concerns over voter fraud for his position.
The Judiciary Committee will be run by Democrats until Saturday, when Dick Cheney is sworn in as vice president, giving him a tie-breaking vote that will return control of the evenly split Senate to Republicans.
Defending Ashcroft From 'Liberal Forces'
Countering Jackson on GMA, Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said "liberal forces" were cynically "lining up to kick a little Ashcroft."
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