A Narrow Win for Ashcroft

Former Sen. John Ashcroft of Missouri won Senate confirmation Thursday as attorney general, 58 to 42, surviving a vitriolic six-week debate that triggered the largest opposition vote for the post in more than 75 years.

The vote marked the first big political test for President Bush’s fledgling administration, and Bush came out of it with a victory far narrower than many Republicans had predicted.

Only eight Democrats joined the Senate’s 50 Republicans to support Ashcroft. California’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, opposed his confirmation.

A Bush spokesman said the president looks forward to progress on his agenda by his now-completed Cabinet and to seeing Ashcroft prove his critics wrong. Ashcroft said he was grateful for the Senate’s vote and pledged to “confront injustice by leading a professional Justice Department that is free from politics [and] that is uncompromisingly fair.”

But the way Ashcroft took office Thursday further infuriated some of his opponents.

Less than three hours after the Senate confirmed him, Ashcroft was sworn in as the nation’s 79th attorney general by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a private ceremony at the court. The two are old friends and colleagues from Missouri.

Having the oath administered by a judge regarded as a foe of the civil rights community “only underscores our concerns,” said Ralph Neas, head of People for the American Way, a liberal group that helped mobilize opposition to Ashcroft.

“In terms of signals sent, this is not very subtle,” Neas said. Ashcroft and Thomas “certainly share a lot in common, including an extraordinarily right-wing legal philosophy.”

Despite the ultimate result, Ashcroft’s opponents claimed as a victory the most contentious confirmation process since Sen. John Tower was defeated as Defense secretary in 1989.

Democrats said their 42 nay votes should make the Bush White House realize that they will vigorously fight efforts to fill future Supreme Court openings and other judicial and political positions with “extreme” or hard-line conservatives.

Traditionally, the Senate gives presidents broad leeway in choosing top administration officials. But Democrats said they were emboldened by the fact that so many members of their party found Ashcroft unacceptable for the job.

“It’s a shot across the bow,” declared Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of Ashcroft’s strongest defenders, said Americans should feel safer with Ashcroft at the helm of the 130,000-employee Justice Department, which includes the FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and numerous other agencies.

Hatch, suggesting that the Clinton administration tolerated “a licensing of crime” during the last eight years, said the nation is “going to have an attorney general who’s going to get tough as heck on crime.” Tougher enforcement against gun violations and a redoubled effort to fight illegal drugs are just two areas that Ashcroft will attack, he said.

Democrats See Need for Ashcroft to Reach Out

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), decrying the sharp personal attacks inflicted on his good friend and former colleague, said: “I vouch for John Ashcroft. You mark my words. He will go on to be a great and valuable attorney general.”

Ashcroft’s confirmation had been virtually assured for weeks because all 50 Senate Republicans staunchly supported the controversial nominee. Senate watchers were predicting as recently as a few weeks ago that only about 20 Democrats would oppose Ashcroft and risk alienating the Bush White House.

Instead, Ashcroft takes office with more votes cast against him than any previous attorney general. Thirty-one senators voted against Edwin Meese III, President Reagan’s attorney general nominee, in 1985. And the contest was the closest for the position since President Coolidge’s choice, Charles B. Warren, was voted down twice by the Senate in 1925.

While Ashcroft’s supporters portrayed him as a man of integrity and experience, his Democratic detractors attacked his judgment and sensitivity in praising a neo-Confederate magazine, accepting an honorary degree from Bob Jones University despite its ban on interracial dating and skewering several minority candidates for federal posts. His opponents also questioned whether Ashcroft’s strong conservative views on abortion, civil rights, gun control and other divisive issues would prevent him from fairly executing the nation’s laws.

Atty. Gen. Ashcroft confronts a full agenda of problems, including ongoing concerns about violence in the nation’s schools, racial profiling on its roads, security at its nuclear facilities and holes in its borders.

Moreover, a record eight-year drop in national crime rates--to the lowest levels in more than a generation--appears to have plateaued, and murder and serious crime rates in Los Angeles and other big cities are beginning to creep back up.

Although some observers believe that Ashcroft’s bruising confirmation battle could hamper his ability to do the job, the Bush administration expressed confidence in him.

“As we have seen from President Bush, it’s quite possible to win a close victory and still do an excellent job in office,” White House spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said.

Bush’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer, acknowledged that Ashcroft’s nomination was divisive.

But, he said, Bush believes that “all Americans, whether they voted for him or not, whether they support Sen. Ashcroft at this moment or not, are going to come to see an attorney general they can be proud of. And he thinks that, in time, people will recognize that we have a nonpolitical attorney general, an attorney general who will enforce the law.”

Democrats said that Ashcroft could benefit by reaching out to members of minority and women’s groups whom he may have offended with some of his past statements and actions on desegregation, gay rights, affirmative action, abortion rights and other issues.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), one of Ashcroft’s most severe critics, said that one way for Ashcroft to reach out would be to continue the Justice Department’s investigation into possible voting rights violations in Florida in the November election and to ensure that the inquiry is aggressive. Tackling both racial profiling and possible racial disparities in federal death sentences also would send strong signals about Ashcroft’s willingness to address the needs of disenfranchised groups, Democrats said.

Until that happens, however, Ashcroft’s opponents vowed to keep a close eye on him.

‘This is Someone Who Can’t Be Trusted’

“We’re going to be monitoring this man as closely as anyone has ever been monitored,” said Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington bureau of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “This is someone who can’t be trusted.”

Women’s groups pledged similar diligence because many remain fearful that Ashcroft--who has tried for years to outlaw almost all forms of abortion--will back down from his recent promises to respect what he now calls a woman’s “constitutional right to an abortion.”

“We will fight the new leadership at the Justice Department and the [Bush] administration every step of the way if they attempt to roll back decades of legal advances for women and their families,” said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center. “And we will hold the Senate responsible for making sure John Ashcroft keeps [his] promises.”

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More Inside

After the Battle: The big surprise in the Senate vote to approve John Ashcroft as attorney general was that both sides seemed prepared to carry on--with few signs of any long-term scars, A21