ASHCROFT MUST DECIDE WHICH RUN TO MAKE

Missouri U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft made an interesting announcement recently. He said he will announce Jan. 5 his decision whether to run for president, for re-election to the Senate or simultaneously run for both.

Ashcroft has taken major steps to raise his national profile over the last year. Since announcing nearly 18 months ago that he was exploring the possibility of running for president in 2000, Ashcroft has been everywhere while still making 99 percent of Senate roll calls. He has visited dozens of states -- some, including all-important California, many times. Now a regular on the nightly cable and Sunday-morning interview shows, Ashcroft stood out last January by becoming the first major elected official to call on the president to resign. This stand, combined with other aspects of the Ashcroft record, have made him a favorite of the conservatives who dominate the Republican nominating process.

Mother Jones magazine, a left-wing journal not often quoted here, recently offered this succinct summation of GOP presidential hopefuls: "The field of Republican presidential candidates is divided between those who are principally committed to moral issues and those who have the mainstream credibility to be elected. Ashcroft is the only candidate who passes both tests."

This is heady stuff for a first-time national candidate who is still testing the waters. With the early announcement by Gov. Mel Carnahan that he will run against the junior senator in 2000, Ashcroft faces tough choices. He appears for now to be planning to operate on parallel tracks of simultaneously running for senator and president. This he can do -- for a while.

A new Missouri law passed this year permits such candidates to run for both posts up to August 2000 -- the time of the parties' presidential nominating conventions. By that month, Ashcroft will have to choose which race he wants to stay in. Should he wind up on the national ticket, he would renounce the Senate race. A successor GOP nominee would then be chosen by the Republican state committee for the Senate race. Any candidate chosen so late, and lacking experience in a statewide race, will be at a disadvantage to an incumbent two-term governor. This augurs for an earlier Ashcroft decision. Absent spectacular success that has him rocketing toward a place as either No. 1 or No. 2 on the national ticket, it further augurs for Ashcroft make the difficult decision to fold his national ambitions in favor of tending to Missouri knitting.

Never in modern times has Missouri has seen a race between two candidates of this stature, both proven winners. An Ashcroft-Carnahan race would offer Missourians a clear philosophical choice between conservative and liberal. Between a proponent of America's job-creating entrepreneurial class, and a tool of the trial lawyers. Between the governor who left us the 49th lowest tax burden, and the governor who has taken us to 16th highest. A pro-lifer vs. the most pro-abortion governor in history. Bring it on.