Democrats: Ashcroft Faces Tough Questions

Jan. 16, 2001 -- 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."

"For them, politics is blood sport, when the real issue isadvancing their agenda; an agenda of quotas, an agenda of abortion ondemand, an agenda that talks about running faith out of the publicsquare and using spending and expansion of government as the solutionto every problem," Blackwell said. "The reality is this is not about John Ashcroft. This is about liberal forces trying to advance their agenda."

The Bush campaign also circulated a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Ashcroft from the brother of murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

"The charges of racism seem to me to be nothing more than a politicalploy to fan the flames of racial division in our country," Charles Evers writes. "I sincerely urge you to join me in supporting Senator Ashcroft's confirmation for Attorney General."

In the 1950s and '60s, Evers helped organize voter registration and other civil rights efforts for the NAACP. In the late 80s, he abandoned his affiliation with the Democratic Party and has been a delegate to the last two Republican conventions.

Judge Battle Resurfaces

At his hearings this week, Ashcroft is certain to be asked why he led opposition to a black Missouri judge nominated to the federal bench. The judge, Ronnie White, is expected to testify Thursday. Ashcroft rallied support against White's nomination by calling the judge "pro-criminal." But his opponents say he killed the White nomination in an effort to exploit racial tensions in Missouri in a crass bid to boost his re-election effort.

"I saw him bring down Judge Ronnie White in an unprecedented fashion," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Sunday on This Week. Boxer is the the lone senator to publicly announce she will vote against Ashcroft.

"This is a man from the extreme," Boxer said. "He divides people by his views. I'll tell you something, this is a terrible appointment."

In an interview last week with CBS Radio, President Clinton said he thought the Senate made "a bad mistake" by rejecting his nomination of White.

"I've known Senator Ashcroft a long time," Clinton said. "I know he is genuinely very, very conservative and that's what's in his heart, but I didn't think this was about that and it surprised and profoundly disappointed me."

Center of Controversy

ABCNEWS has learned Republicans on the committee, in an attempt to one-up Democrats during the confirmation hearings, plan to call relatives of one of the murder victims at issue in the White controversy .

With solid Republican support, top Democrats acknowledge Ashcroft is likely to win confirmation. So far, Ashcroft has no damaging personal revelations like those that forced labor secretary nominee Linda Chavez to withdraw.

The Senate has rarely rejected the nominations of former colleagues such as Ashcroft, with the 1989 nomination of former Sen. John Tower of Texas as defense secretary a notable exception. And some Democrats say they are likely to vote in favor of Ashcroft.

"I'm going to see if … there's anything to disqualify him,"said Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada on Fox News Sunday. "At this stage, I don't see anything."

But Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said Sunday morning that the Senate's obligation to consider nominees should not be taken to mean the president-elect has carte blanche in making his selections.

"Advise and consent doesn't mean advise and rubber stamp," Leahy said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.