Ashcroft's Way
America's top cop has been demonized and lionized. He's a complex guy all right, just not the guy everyone thinks he is
Curtains. Ashcroft's replacement of Colgate with the president of a small Bible college only solidified his image as an ideological attorney general. But what really tarnished his image was the "blue drape" story. Beverley Lumpkin, a veteran Justice Department journalist, wrote a column for ABCNews.com in which she reported that someone on Ashcroft's staff had ordered a set of blue drapes to cover two art deco statues, including the Spirit of Justice, in the Justice Department's ceremonial Great Hall. Lumpkin reported that she was unable to confirm the tip that Ashcroft was behind the coverup because he was offended by the statue's bare breast. But some news outlets that picked up the story blamed Ashcroft, and the item solidified the attorney general's reputation as a religious prig. "I did not order that drape, and I didn't know it was going to be put up," Ashcroft told U.S. News, "until after it was put up." Justice spokesman Corallo proffered an explanation: President Bush was planning a visit to the department, and a White House advance team wanted blue drapes for the televised event. A Justice Department employee purchased the drapes, and the rest, well, has been an acute public-relations aggravation for Ashcroft, who, Corallo says, couldn't have cared less about the bare-breasted statue."There are plenty of bare breasts," he says, "in murals and reliefs all over the department."
Still, Ashcroft's own actions on other matters have sometimes contributed to the perceptual problems. He has even managed to inflame the nation's librarians. In seeking to allay concern about the provision of the Patriot Act that allows federal agents to obtain the library records of terrorism suspects, Ashcroft complained that librarians were wallowing in "baseless hysteria."
A federal judge in Detroit recently blasted the attorney general for violating a gag order in a major terrorism prosecution, causing the attorney general to issue a written apology. His naming of scientist Steven Hatfill as a "person of interest" in the FBI's investigation of the anthrax attacks two years ago triggered a civil suit that is pending. And his decision to announce, from Moscow, the arrest of al Qaeda suspect Jose Padilla on charges of scheming to deliver a "dirty bomb"--a crude radiological device--somewhere in the United States left White House aides grumbling about the Justice Department's headline-grabbing.
More and more, there's grousing among prosecutors, who say they duck when Ashcroft blows into town to announce a big case because they fear that his polarizing presence could taint the jury pool. Says Kris Kolesnik, a former veteran investigator for Ashcroft's friend Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa: "He's not being advised on how to talk about cases without seeming to politically interfere. He thinks he's going to be tough on terrorists. He doesn't realize it's interfering with the administering of justice."
Aides say that some of these perceived gaffes result from the daily margin calls Ashcroft makes, trying to balance the need to protect sensitive terrorism investigations against his desire to inform and recruit the public in the war on terrorism. "He's very concerned and cognizant of what he says publicly," says a senior official. But to many at Justice, Ashcroft's rhetoric betrays a failure to understand the department's true mission. "They don't have a big sense of the institution," says a Justice official. "Their decision is driven by, `How do we win this battle now.' "
advertisement
