Griper Blade: Here Comes Another Bush Loonie

Back in 2001, George W. Bush chose a seriously bad person to become the Attorney General of the United States. John Ashcroft was fresh off a race in Missouri that he lost his re-election bid to a dead guy. People literally preferred a room temperature former human over the Republican candidate for the Senate. The former Governor, the late Mel Carnahan, won easily and the current Governor appointed Carnahan's widow, Jean, to serve in his place.

Ashcroft was nominated to be AGUS and, in one of the first Bush/Senate confrontations, nearly failed to be voted out of committee. The only dem vote that Ashcroft gained was Russ Feingold's.

"I believe the American people desperately want us to conduct ourselves, where possible, in a bipartisan manner -- with civility, with give and take -- and act as if those terms have real meaning and are not just empty rhetoric," Feingold said. He was acting on the idea that disagreements over ideology shouldn't be a reason to vote against a nominee -- if it were, no president could get his nominees past confirmation if the Senate were controlled by the opposition party.

Unfortunately for America, Ashcroft turned out to be a complete nutjob. He ordered that statues of a bare-breasted "Spirit of Justice" at the Justice department be covered. He started each day at Justice with a prayer session and the singing of patriotic songs he wrote himself (one DoJ lawyer was quoted as saying, "Have you heard the song? It really sucks.")

Prior to being appointed by Bush, Ashcroft had expressed admiration for the confederate cause, which makes him a sort of historical traitor -- Missouri was a union state. And, after his confirmation, it was Ashcroft who led the assault one our civil liberties.

You would've been excused if you thought Bush wouldn't be able to find anyone crazier than Ashcroft...

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