Judge says Ashcroft distorted his record
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Three days of confirmation hearings for Attorney General-designee John Ashcroft prepared to close after a Missouri judge accused the fomer senator of distorting his record to block his nomination to the federal bench.
| |
Judge Ronnie White
| |
|
Much of Thursday's proceedings became a rehash of the battle over Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White's 1998 nomination to a federal district judgeship. White, an African-American, told the Senate Judiciary Committee he did not believe Ashcroft, a former Missouri Republican senator, opposed his nomination out of racism -- but he said Ashcroft had misrepresented his record to rally fellow Republicans to oppose his nomination to a U.S. judgeship.
"I was surprised to hear that he had gone to the Senate floor and called me 'pro-criminal' with a tremendous bent towards criminal activity -- that he told his colleagues that I was against prosecutors and the culture in terms of maintaining order," White said. "I deeply resent those baseless misrepresentations."
White's critics most often cite his dissenting opinion in a Missouri death penalty case in which he recommended a new trial for a man convicted of murdering a Montineau County sheriff's deputy and the wife of the county sheriff. White said he supported death sentences in most cases brought before him, but Ashcroft used that opinion to paint him as being "soft on crime."
| |
Attorney General-designee John Ashcroft
| |
|
Supporters denied accusations that Ashcroft's opposition to White, who is African American, was rooted in racial politics. They have pointed to Ashcroft's votes in support of 26 other African-American judicial nominees. But Democrats also argued Ashcroft torpedoed White's nomination in order to create an issue for his 2000 re-election campaign against the late Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, who appointed White to the Missouri high court.
"I believe your career was besmirched not on a question of you legal abilities, because your legal abilities are golden. They've been proven," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the current chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "But they were besmirched to aid Senator Ashcroft's political fortunes. That, sir, is wrong."
Carnahan died in a plane crash a month before the election, but defeated Ashcroft posthumously: His widow, Jean Carnahan, was appointed to take the seat.
White said he did not think Ashcroft was a racist, but thought a double standard was used in rejecting his nomination. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, defended the designee, telling him that neither Ashcroft nor any other GOP senator brought up White's race in their discussions, and some were unaware of it until after the vote.
"I think your record can be fairly debated. I'm very troubled by some of the things that you have written," Kyl said. "But I assure you that I do not believe that you ever intended to misapply the law, and I believe that that is Senator Ashcroft's belief as well."
| |
Sen. Jon Kyl
| |
|
President-elect George W. Bush tapped Ashcroft in December to lead the Justice Department, stirring up strong opposition from liberal groups concerned about the conservative former senator's ability to enforce laws with which he strongly disagrees. Democrats invited White to speak at Thursday's hearing after two days of testimony from Ashcroft.
Ashcroft told senators Wednesday that he acted properly in opposing White's nomination.
"Judges at the federal level are appointed for life," Ashcroft said. Had White reached the federal bench, he continued, he would have had the authority to overturn decisions of the Missouri Supreme Court. He could not allow that to happen, he said.
White's testimony was followed by a panel of witnesses, pro and con, that included members of abortion rights organizations and former Missouri state officials.
Ashcroft's opposition to measures giving preference to minorities has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and civil rights groups, and many of the panel's Democrats repeated their expressions of concern over Ashcroft's ability to enforce laws that might run counter to his partisan loyalties and religious faith.
In particular, Ashcroft -- a staunch religious conservative -- opposes abortion rights except when a woman's life is in danger. While in the Senate, he pushed for a constitutional amendment banning abortion.
"John Ashcroft's record speaks volumes," National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League President Kate Michelman said. "It shows that he would use the vast powers of the Department of Justice to bend the law and undermine the very freedoms it took American women a century to secure. His promise to enforce existing law is obvious and necessary, but is woefully insufficient."
Critics also focused on Ashcroft's opposition to desegregation rulings and his attempt to keep nurses from providing contraceptive services in state health clinics during his tenure as attorney general of Missouri.
"I have no doubt that he would use the powers of the office to shape the judiciary and the law to his own personal agenda, at the great expense of women, minorities, and our current body of constitutional and statutory law," said Frank Susman, a St. Louis attorney involved in several cases related to abortion rights and contraception.
Ashcroft picks up police endorsement
Ashcroft was not without his defenders, including Moniteau County Sheriff Kenny Jones, whose wife was killed in 1991 by James Johnson -- the defendant in the case White's critics cited. Jones attended Thursday's hearings before the Judiciary Committee.
"Last year, Senator Ashcroft was unjustly labeled for his opposition to the nomination of Judge Ronnie White to the federal district court. Senator Ashcroft had one reason that I know about to oppose Judge Ronnie White: I asked
him to," Jones said at a news conference with Ashcroft on Thursday morning.
| |
Rep. J.C. Watts
| |
|
Jones said he took White's nomination to the federal bench as a personal affront and circulated a petition against it.
Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts, the only black Republican congressman, testified that in the six years he has known the designee, "I have never detected anything but dignity and respect for one's skin color from John Ashcroft."
Officials of the Fraternal Order of Police, several state attorneys general and numerous police officers announced their backing for Ashcroft's nomination Thursday morning as White testified against it before the Judiciary Committee. And victims' rights advocate and San Juan Capistrano, California, Mayor Colleen Campbell praised Ashcroft's "unselfish courage" on behalf of crime victims.
Kennedy ponders filibuster, but Ashcroft's odds still good
Ashcroft has been the most controversial of those Bush has asked to serve in his Cabinet: Other designees have practically sailed through their confirmation hearings, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee quickly voted to recommend the nomination of retired Gen. Colin Powell as secretary of state to the full Senate on Thursday.
| |
Sen. Edward Kennedy
| |
|
Ashcroft is still considered likely to be confirmed despite the flak he has taken, but a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy said Thursday the veteran Democrat is pondering whether to filibuster Ashcroft's designation.
"Senator Kennedy has not ruled anything in or out ... (but) he is signaling a possible filibuster," Kennedy spokesman Jim Manley said Thursday.
During the hearings, Kennedy has blasted Ashcroft for earlier comments that U.S. citizens must retain the right to bear arms to protect against "a tyrannical government." Thursday, he called Ashcroft's treatment of White "the ugliest thing that's happened to any nominee in all my years in the United States Senate." But Republicans are likely to have the 60 votes needed to cut off debate and end a filibuster.
Ashcroft's prospects appeared to improve Wednesday when Sen. Zell Miller, D-Georgia, became the first Democrat to announce he would back the designee senator. And during Wednesday's session, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl conceded, "Well, you're likely to be confirmed, as we all know."
CNN.com Writer Matt Smith and Reuters contributed to this report.
| 
(
