And Take Your Patriot Act, Too

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Attorney General John Ashcroft submitted his resignation letter to President Bush yesterday. The Misanthrope says good riddance. The duties of the attorney general include initiating and supervising legal proceedings that affect the welfare of the nation.

Under Ashcroft, civil liberties were poised to collapse like the Twin Towers. He gave us the U.S. Patriot Act that was anything but. Among his hall of fame achievements are:

• Suspending due process for non-citizens suspected of terrorism
  
• Ordering federal agencies to hold back on public-information requests
  
• Letting industry slide on antitrust issues (specifically the Microsoft’s antitrust case)
  
• Presiding over the first federal executions in four decades
  
• Holding daily Bible study and prayer meetings in the office
  
• Spending $8,000 of taxpayer money to cover the bare-breasted statue of Lady Justice
  

The Misanthrope suspects that Bush felt sorry for the defeated Senator. Bush appointed the attorney general after he lost his Missouri Senate seat to a candidate who had died weeks before the election. In 1998, Ashcroft a favorite of the religious right with a voting record that had put him in second place on the John Birch Society’s legislative scorecard, in a tie with North Carolina’s Jesse Helms.

The Misanthrope waves a hearty good-bye and good riddance.