ASHCROFT: A TRIUMPH FOR RULE OF LAW

George W. Bush's nomination of John Ashcroft as attorney general could not suit me more. Ashcroft is an outstanding nomination, especially on the heels of the most corrupt Justice Department in the history of the nation.

Ashcroft is an evangelical Christian, scrupulously honest, genuinely conservative, a former Missouri attorney general and governor and a U.S. senator. He has stellar academic credentials, having graduated from Yale with honors and the prestigious University of Chicago School of Law. He is a man of unimpeachable integrity who is without skeletons.

The wisdom of the Ashcroft appointment is further demonstrated by the quality of Ashcroft's most outspoken opponents, some of whom are paralyzed with panic.

Militant feminist Kate Michelman said Ashcroft is "a real danger to women's rights." Translation: Those who are staunchly pro-life should be disqualified from public service.

Ralph Neas, president of the People for the American Way, said, "I don't believe anyone in the U.S. Senate has a worse record on civil rights and civil liberties." Translation: Ashcroft had the political courage to oppose the nomination of Bill Lann Lee as chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Lann Lee's nomination was rejected by the Senate, but Clinton illegally installed Lee anyway, completely thwarting the Senate's advice-and-consent role. As Ashcroft and others predicted, Lee has turned the Civil Rights Division into a zealous agency for enforcement of affirmative-action initiatives deemed illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The foreword to a 1927 primer on the Department of Justice emphasizes the Justice Department's central role in law enforcement:

"Probably the most essential function of government is the maintenance of law and order. A government that does not protect its citizens in the orderly conduct of their affairs and ensure the enforcement of its commands as expressed in law, is not only derelict in respect to one of its primary duties, but also brings itself into contempt, and thus lays the basis for failure in respect to all its other undertakings. ... This task of law enforcement presents one of the important problems of administration confronting the national government. The Department of Justice is the central agency for the performance of this task."

Sadly, the Clinton administration displayed an ugly contempt for the cherished institutions of our government. That attitude unfortunately trickled down into the halls of Main Justice. The Clinton-Gore-Reno Justice Department left in its wake a system corrupted under the influence of executive privilege and power.

Bush and Ashcroft have their work cut out for them. The Clinton-Gore-Reno years provide a regrettable example of the horrors of politicized justice in America. Bush and Ashcroft will have this sordid legacy as a constant reminder of how bad things can be when justice is perverted and subordinated to the whims and interests of a political class of would-be elites.

~David Limbaugh is a nationally syndicated columnist.