No question: Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history. (KRUGMAN)

[frank frankly]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/opinion/15KRUG.html?pagewanted=print&position=

June 15, 2004
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Travesty of Justice
By PAUL KRUGMAN

No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history.

<snip>

Perhaps most telling is the way Mr. Ashcroft responds to criticism of his performance. His first move is always to withhold the evidence. Then he tries to change the subject by making a dramatic announcement of a terrorist threat.

For an example of how Mr. Ashcroft shuts down public examination, consider the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former F.B.I. translator who says that the agency's language division is riddled with incompetence and corruption, and that the bureau missed critical terrorist warnings. In 2002 she gave closed-door Congressional testimony; Senator Charles Grassley described her as "very credible . . . because people within the F.B.I. have corroborated a lot of her story."

But the Justice Department has invoked the rarely used "state secrets privilege" to prevent Ms. Edmonds from providing evidence. And last month the department retroactively classified two-year-old testimony by F.B.I. officials, which was presumably what Mr. Grassley referred to.

[LittleApple81]

1. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, admire, admire, admire KRUGMAN!

:loveya: :loveya:

[Hoping4Change]

20. I second that.

:toast: Hoorah for Krugman!!!!

[Eloriel]

29. WHOA - Sibel Edmonds goes MAINSTREAM --

that's freakin' unbelievable. Wow.

[Octafish]

32. That's why Krugman's the best!

The guy's been pretty lonely at the NYT. He persevered, though. And now the BFEE is starting to get the swift kick in the pants it and its members so richly deserve.

[physioex]

2. He is a christian fundamentalist....

That should give you a hint as to his performance...

[rwheeler31]

5. We worked so hard to get this man out of

Missouri, We knew he was a nut job. It is so much worse than we thought it would be.

[kentuck]

13. He got beat by a dead man...

But Bush still chose him as AG....Through some terrible alignment in the stars or something, we now have a pResident and an Attorney General that are motivated by fear and paranoia. It is hte defense mechanism for both.

[jmags]

3. He never fails to deliver...

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Wow, an AG who is worse than Ed Meese

I never would have thought it possible

[coloradodem2005]

6. Who did Meese serve under?

Reagan? Nixon?

[DinahMoeHum]

17. Reagan.

:kick:

[No2W2004]

7. Let's see....who could be a worse Attorney General?

Harry M. Daugherty under Harding- was implicated in the fraudulent return of German assets seized by the alien property custodian to their original owners. He escaped imprisonment only by refusing to testify on the ground that he might incriminate himself.

John N. Mitchell-On March 1, 1974 a federal grand jury indicted Mitchell for conspiracy to obstruct justice. Mitchell was found guilty and served 18 months of a 2 and a half year sentence.

Edwin Meese III-As attorney general in the Reagan administration, Meese played a key role in the Iran-contra scandal. According to special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's investigation into the affair, once the Reagan administration's illegal sale of arms to Iranian terrorists and subsequent illegal transfer of funds to Nicaraguan terrorist rebels was made public, Meese orchestrated the cover-up of the administration's criminal actions.

John Ashcroft-Personally set out to destroy constitutional rights guaranteed in the constitution. Declared in a memo that the President can do whatever he wants as long as it is necessary to defend America.

Yep Ashcroft hands down is much worse than any other AG. The other's don't look so bad compared to Asshead.

[Sugarbleus]

8. Meese's crap was pretty awful but at least he

had a better personality.

Ass Croft is JUST the epitome of sinister. He and Shrub are joined at the hip by definition------->bellicose

bad,bad,bad,bad...the WORST.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Meese had a better personality???

Are we talking about the same guy?

The guy who claimed that of course suspects were guilty, otherwise they wouldn't be suspects? The guy who hated the Miranda ruling because it complicated is job? The guy who, like Ken Starr, wasted millions of dollars chasing sexual phantoms?

Meese was the beta version of Asscroft.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

23. meese is a pig t-shirt caper

when meese was ag, a courier went into the justice dept wearing a

t-shirt that said something like... "experts agree... meese is a pig."

they threw him out. they caved in later and let him in with his

t-shirt.

[Sugarbleus]

25. Well, yes, but what I really meant was more of a personal

nature. Ashcroft is blatantly BELLICOSE...transparently evil and physically UGLY.

Other than that, they are all cut from the same cloth in ideology.

[Art_from_Ark]

30. Sorry for the overreactive tone of my post

I'll have to admit that, being out of the country most of the time I haven't had to put up with Asscroft figuratively in my face each night, as I did with Meese. So if Meese's "saving grace" is that he had a "personality", then I shudder to think what Asscroft must be like

:scared:

[Sugarbleus]

31. ....No problem....... =o)

[attaturk]

21. A. Mitchell Palmer

Was even worse than Criscoman.

He was the original McCarthy under Wilson and brought about the First Red Scare.

Harry Daugherty, James McReynolds (out and out racist and later Supreme Court Justice) and John Mitchell come in behind Palmer as does Ashcroft.

[rumguy]

9. Devastating

Krugman takes no prisoners...

[RBHam]

11. Krugman calls Ashcroft out...

When will the house of cards collapse?

[Cheswick2.0]

16. So far Gore, Dean and Krugman have called this guy out

What will be the tipping point and when will it happen?

[Hekate]

12. A kick for Paul Krugman, economist & citizen extraordinaire

:kick:

Hekate

[Disturbed]

14. This Attorney General is a Disgrace!

The majority of Republicans allow Asscrack to be in contempt of Congress. Shameless! How can these representatives still hold their jobs when they support an AG that approves of violating the Constitution of the USA? Why didn't anyone challenge this creep and charge him with lying under oath. He said that he does not support torture when a memo that he approved makes a case for just that!

Asscrack is being investigated for violations of laws. It is my sincere hope that he is indicted and recieves at least 5 years in Leavenworth. The Dept of Justice. Where is the freakin' justice?

[BurtWorm]

15. Amen!

Amen! Amen!

[nostamj]

18. I'm printing this for my cast

we have a "tribute" to JOHN! in our revue.

it is more appropriately nasty with every passing day!

[DinahMoeHum]

19. Like I've said, Asscrack can't kick a duck in the butt unless he's

standing on a brick, and even then, odds are 50/50 he'll miss the mark.

:evilgrin:

[11 Bravo]

22. I thought it couldn't get any worse than John Mitchell, but

sadly, I have been proven wrong. Ashcroft is without question the single most divisive, dangerous, and just downright scary public figure I have seen in my lifetime.

[immune2irony]

26. John Mitchell was way worse

Time heals all wounds. Ashcroft seems so bad because he's here, now, and in our face while Mitchell's been dead for over 15 years.

[SlingBlade]

27. Fucking A he was

Some of the younger DUers may not know it but that guy was a fucking Nazi extraordinaire, A precursor to this insane fucker we have now.
:dem:

[frank frankly]

24. kick

:kick:

[Ruffhowse]

28. Ashcroft is in WAY over his head in this job.