Ashcroft’s Record

Re: “A Surprising Civil Rights About-Face for Ashcroft,” May 13: I find U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s stay of the Timothy J. McVeigh execution thick with irony, considering Ashcroft blocked Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White’s nomination to a federal district judgeship under a similar circumstance. White stayed a Missouri execution to ensure that the condemned received fair treatment under law, only to have Ashcoft label White as pro-criminal and against prosecutors during a later Senate confirmation hearing.

So using the McVeigh stay of execution as an example of Ashcroft’s about-face on civil rights is hardly comforting since a judge as worthy as White was so brutally denied a federal bench.

David Glaubke

Encino