No Tears for John Ashcroft

[Jerkass]

I'm surprised not to have seen worldwide gnashing of teeth and rending of garbs at the loss to George W's cabinet of John Ashcroft, who somehow managed to render his extraordinary services to his country after suffering through the pain of defeat by a quite dead guy (true story) in the Missouri Senatorial elections in 2000.

John Ashcroft--R.I.P.

[wshaw]

John Ashcroft, who wrote in his resignation letter:

"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."

Ah. So they can all go home now?

[Jerkass]

Well, I must say...that's a relief.

[wshaw]

Ashcroft's replacement seems like a nice guy. (http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2004_11_07.html#001873)

[Jerkass]

On the other hand, I'll confess that I'm sad to see Colin Powell go. A lot of things might have turned out differently in the first four Years of Dubyah if Powell had had more influence within the Cabinet.

[Wavid]

Ashcroft's replacement seems like a nice guy. (http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2004_11_07.html#001873)

Indeed:

Attorney general nominee worries some military critics

By Dan Eggen
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A dozen high-ranking retired military officers took the unusual step this week of signing a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing "deep concern" over the nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, marking a rare military foray into the debate over a civilian post.

The group includes retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officers are one of several groups to urge the Senate to sharply question Gonzales during a confirmation hearing tomorrow about his role in shaping legal policies on torture and interrogation methods.

Although the GOP-controlled Senate is expected to confirm Gonzales to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, some Democrats have vowed to question him aggressively amid continuing revelations of abuses of military detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The letter signed by the retired officers, compiled by the group Human Rights First and sent to the committee's leadership Monday night, criticizes Gonzales for his role in reviewing and approving a series of memorandums arguing, among other things, that the United States could lawfully ignore portions of the Geneva Conventions and that some forms of torture "may be justified" in the war on terrorism.

Although it stops short of directly opposing his nomination, the three-page letter contains sharp criticism of his decisions related to military legal issues and argues that he is "on the wrong side of history."

In addition to Shalikashvili, other prominent signatories to the letter include retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, former chief of the Central Command; former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill McPeak; and Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, the Army's first female three-star general. Several, including Shalikashvili, supported the failed presidential candidacy of Democrat John Kerry.

"There was significant overlap; I counted five of them that were actively supporting Senator Kerry's campaign for president, and I don't think that's a coincidence," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a Bush ally who will introduce Gonzales at the confirmation hearing.

"Opponents of the president were unsuccessful in beating him for re-election and now have decided to continue this sort of political insurgency against his nominees."

But Richard Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who specializes in military-civilian affairs, said the letter is rare, if not unprecedented.

"I don't know of any precedent for something like this," Kohn said.

"A retired group of military officers bands together to virtually oppose a Cabinet nominee? And a nonmilitary one? It is highly unusual, to say the least."