2001-01-17 18:37:53+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments
It's a stop Ashcroft pile-on: So from one face Ashcroft says "My primary personal belief is that the law is supreme, that I don't place myself above the law, that I shouldn't place myself above the law, so it would violate my beliefs to do it." From the other face, Ashcroft told Bob Jones University students "We have no king but Jesus." No wonder he lost to a corpse.
[ related topics: Religion Politics Humor Web development ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:56+00 by: shmuel
Umm, cute sound bites aside, there's no contradiction between the two, you know...
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:56+00 by: Dan Lyke
Well, only if "the law" is that defined by "the king". Otherwise there's clearly a contradiction between the two.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:56+00 by: shmuel
Or if "the king" is okay with subjects upholding the laws of their land. And Ashcroft did say that he'd resign if there were ever a conflict between the two. Ergo, no contradiction. Besides, I don't think anybody really suggests that "the law" is a "king" in any sense. It's a bit of an apples and oranges comparison.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:56+00 by: Dan Lyke
The only definition of "king" I've heard that allows for that is the watered down English monarchy that Ashcroft rails against so highly. And remember, this is a guy who threw his political weight around to keep a public library open late so his kid could finish a report, the integrity of his public rules versus private power ethics are quite suspect.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:56+00 by: Larry Burton
>. . . the integrity of his public rules versus private power ethics are quite suspect. Can you name a politician that wouldn't come under the same suspiscion? I don't particularly like the guy either. I think he is going to do everything in his power to escalate the war on drugs at the cost of a lot of folks civil rights, but I can't think of anyone that I know of that Pres.-elect Bush would put in that post that would be any better.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:56+00 by: Dan Lyke
There are several nominees for cabinet positions that are just sailing through with no objection. Colin Powell, for one. And there are plenty of Republicans who believe in sane law enforcement and have reasonable public policy goals that I'd find acceptable in that slot. As much as they'd like to have us believe that they're a majority, the religious reich is a very small portion of this country's population, and while the overlap with Republicans is slightly larger there are plenty of reasonable candidates that don't make Bob Dornan look centrist available for cabinet posts.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:56+00 by: Dan Lyke
Just to add on to that, I'm also very concerned that in Ashcroft we'll get another Attorney General like Ed Meese, who very consciously said "yes, the facts and the statistics disagree with me, but I feel like we should be influencing legislation to..." several times. ie: Someone smart enough to know the truth, but fanatical enough to ignore it.