A Farewell to Ashcroft

John Ashcroft resigned today. When he agreed to serve as Attorney General four years ago, he couldn’t have known that within a year, he would be running a critical front in a world war. In one of the books about President Bush and the war–I thought it might be Woodward’s Bush at War, but I can’t find it there–there is a story about one of the first meetings that President Bush had with his senior advisers after the September 11 attacks. At some point, I remember it as the end of the meeting, Bush turned to Ashcroft and said: “Don’t let it happen again, John.”
I liked that a lot. Not, “Make sure we aren’t doing any racial profiling, John.” But “don’t let it happen again.” Ashcroft’s mandate was clear, and he carried it out more successfully than, at that time, I would have considered possible. It hasn’t happened again. For that, John Ashcroft deserves a big share of the credit. He has our respect and our thanks for a job superbly well done.
DEACON adds: Well said, Rocket Man. To me John Ashcroft is the unsung hero of the Bush administration. He has worked tirelessly to make this country safe and has received mostly vilification for his efforts. But then, the left vilified him above all others from the day he was nominated. His original sin, as far as I can tell, is his religious faith.