It’s reached the point that I now believe the left is happier to see Ashcroft remain as attorney general than the right. This is not to say that Ashcroft’s critics wouldn’t be thrilled to see him resign, but the right seems to be keenly aware that his controversial actions and unpopularity is a drag on the GOP agenda.
In fact, as the NYT reports today, Ashcroft is under “intense scrutiny” now — from Republicans.
On Monday, the Supreme Court repudiated the administration’s contention that the president alone could determine the fate of enemy combatants, in effect slapping down one of Mr. Ashcroft’s most important legal positions. And last week the White House disowned a legal opinion drafted by the Justice Department regarding how far interrogators could go in using coercive techniques to wring information from detainees. Mr. Ashcroft’s role in the preparation of that legal paper is unclear.
Among well-connected Republicans in Washington, there is some private grumbling that Mr. Ashcroft too often pursues his own agenda rather than that of President Bush. Some Republicans are wondering whether Mr. Ashcroft would be asked to return for a second Bush term if the president is re-elected in November, or whether he would choose not to serve again, perhaps to pursue his own run for the presidency in 2008.
Some Republicans say Mr. Ashcroft has become so polarizing a figure that he can no longer be an effective advocate for administration initiatives, like the drive to renew the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act. While Mr. Ashcroft remains immensely popular on the right, especially Christian conservatives, he is seen within the administration as also having picked up at least his share of political baggage in leading the Justice Department through the tumultuous changes that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Republicans with ties to the White House said.
Ashcroft has picked up some “baggage”? That’s a remarkably charitable way of putting it.
Aside from his office preparing torture memos that had to be disavowed, his crushing defeats at the Supreme Court, his false testimony under oath to the 9/11 Commission, his dubious announcements about terrorist threats, his fights with Congress over documents to which lawmakers are entitled, and his absurd counter-terrorism decisions, I can’t imagine what the Republicans who are concerned about Ashcroft’s notoriety are referring to.
And as for whether Ashcroft can parlay his tenure as attorney general into his own presidential run, I can only hope he tries. If he’s the GOP nominee in ’08, I like the Dems’ chances.