20 thoughts on “Ashcroft Resignation: Discuss”

  1. Wow. I’m no fan of Giuliani as AG — it would be nice if they could cater more toward their libertarian wing in that slot — but we have the soft bigotry of low expectations here. Hard to get worse than Ashcroft unless they nominate zombie A. Mitchell Palmer (and he only gets the unambiguous slam because of the brain-eating).

  2. I think Giuliani would be better, but not necessarily by much. It’s hard to say.
    John Yoo would be worse, I think.

  3. I actually don’t know what would make Giuliani good or bad for the job. At least he’s got some background at Justice. What I was looking for is some replacements that would not be greeted with derision. Hopefully that’s not a null set.

  4. Of course not. I just don’t know who’s being talked about here or who the potential candidates are–I come up with folks like John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer, which will never happen. I bet Jeralyn could give you some names, though.

  5. Giuliani was very aggressive as a prosecutor in the insider trading scandals fifteen or so years ago. There were complaints, incluidng some from the WSJ, that he overstepped on some occasions. I’m really not sure how valid they were, so I have no feel for his attitudeson civilliberties. He couldn’t be worse than Ashcroft.
    He also is much smarter that Ashcroft, as are most people. Does he have national ambitions? If so he has strong motivation to get Roe overturned.

  6. If he leaves the statues alone, he’s an improvement. People saw Ashcroft’s draping of the bare breasts of the statue as a minor thing, and in terms of consequences it obviously was. But I saw it as a sign that the man’s priorities were so fantastically out of whack that he had no business being in a position of power. Append his crusade against p0rn in the middle of a war on terror.

  7. There are investigations ongoing and looming. I would say it’s certain that a trusted insider will be appointed, someone the President can trust to take a bullet for the team.

  8. Giuliani is a zealous and competent prosecutor, unlike Ashcroft. He might enforce environmental and corporate crime laws, unlike Ashcroft. He did not have a good civil liberties record at ALL in NYC, but it was not the same as Ashcroft’s. I would guess he does not share Ashcroft’s hostility to immigrants even when they are not suspected of terrorism. I am pretty confident he’d be an improvement, just not necessarily as much of one as you might think.

  9. I thought the idea was that Guiliani wouldn’t take it because he wants to run in 2008 and Justice is too much of a minefield to have as a record.
    But maybe this is his reward for all the talking head stuff.

  10. If he tried to enforce environmental laws, maybe he would get hung out to dry like Whitman. Maybe he’ll be better about immigrants and the rule of law kind of stuff and for in the interests of comity, I will make the incredibly generous assumption that the admin was simply getting bad advice from Ashcroft.
    from the last link
    The usually diplomatic secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, called her the administration’s “wind dummy,” military parlance for landing-strip equipment that serves the purpose of a weather vane.
    Pass the popcorn, this will be like watching a bad movie.

  11. Pass the popcorn, this will be like watching a bad movie.
    So, basically, it’s like Mystery Science Theater 3000, only your nation’s future is at stake.

  13. ok – someone go on the record and tell me WHY Juliani is bad.
    From my point of view:
    good:
    1) stuffed the junk-bonders (good or bad – still a big accomplishment)
    2) stuffed Organized crime
    3) made NYC safe as hell
    bad:
    1) stuffed junk-bonders
    2) made NYC safe as hell by destroying deep-grey-market and over-regulating and over-enforcing light-grey-market activities
    3) is HATED by African American New York Residents (who also get to live in a MUCH safer NYC)
    so – please – show me why hes so terrible.

  15. There’d be some irony and humor in replacing Ashcroft with Giuliani.
    You’d go from someone who thinks dancing and calico cats are literally instruments of Beelzebub to someone pro-choice, not viciously anti-gay, and someone who kept NYers amused with his very public and messy affairs.
    A lot for your entertainment dollar there.
    Rudy G. doesn’t have a lot of talent or much character. But he is extremely lucky. Just prior to 9/11, Rudy’s act had grown stale in NYC. 9/11 happens and he doesn’t beat feet to a bunker in Nebraska and he’s hailed as the modern day GEN McAuliffe. And an accommodating press doesn’t question why Rudy placed NYC’s emergency response offices in the WTC and doesn’t ask why the problems encountered in the first WTC bombing weren’t fixed prior to 9/11.

  16. It will indeed be hilarious when Fox News and the red state Church Ladies discover that Rudy G is a baby killer, an adulterer, and LIVED IN A HOUSE WITH TWO HOMOSEXUALS WHILE DIVORCING HIS WIFE. I imagine it won’t happen, though. Rudy is already running for President and he does not want to spend the next four years fighting Roe v Wade while Frist is raising money, Arnold is amending the constitution and Jeb is trying on a new last name. One may argue that being AG would appeal to the prosecutor in Rudy, but he is smart enough to know that if Ashcroft has not convicted even 1 of the legion that he has arrested, then his own chances of winning any high profile trials in the WOT are not good. I am betting on Rudy to stay on the commentator circuit while polishing his down home act for the red states.

  19. I propose a contest to name the worst possible AG replacement. Pat Robertson is good, but I’m thinking G Gordon Liddy.

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