Acrimony still

The liberals are incensed with Mr. George Bush for choosing Mr. John Ashcroft as Attorney-General despite all the talk of healing wounds after a divisive election.

A REPUBLICAN President is expected to pick Cabinet nominees with conservative credentials, but Mr. George W. Bush should still have known better. Or did he knowingly choose Mr. John Ashcroft, darling of the religious Right but a red rag to the liberals?

No one is picking on Mr. Ashcroft just because he does not smoke, drink or dance. Rather he is being hauled over the coals for his so-called extremist views that people say will make him less than sutiable for the Attorney-General's job. Listening to people on the Right will give the impression that Mr. Ashcroft is the best thing that ever happened to America.

And the left-leaning liberals and the so-called mainstreamers will make it appear as though Mr. Ashcroft is a hick and a red- neck who will start passing guns to religious zealots and white supremists to take aim at abortion clincs the first day he gets into office. But the truth of the matter is that no will really know what goes on ``inside'' Mr. Ashcroft's mind and the only things to go by are his stated views on such issues as abortion, gun control, and affirmative action. Even Mr. Ronnie White, whose move to the Federal Bench was actively opposed by Mr. Ashcroft, has taken the position that he will not label the former Republican Senator a racist, but rather as someone who distorted the African-American Judge's track-record.

The liberals are incensed with the Republican President for choosing Mr. Ashcroft despite all the talk of ``healing'' the wounds after a divisive election. The conservatives say the political Left and others really have nothing to worry about Mr. Ashcroft, whether it is on such issues as abortion or gun control.

But going beyond the drama that was staged on Capitol Hill, the question that has really come to the fore is why Mr. Bush settled on Mr. Ashcroft for Attorney-General when he could have as well gone after a few State Governors who were as qualified as the former Governor of Missouri.

After being caught unawares over the nomination of Ms. Linda Chavez for Labour Secretary, who subsequently withdrew suggesting less than full support from the incoming administration, Mr. Bush decided to hang tough on Mr. Ashcroft, sending the message that as a conservative President he had the right to choose like- minded people.

But there seems to be a message to the religious fundamentalists of the GOP as well. Very early on in the political game in Washington, Mr. Bush appears to be telling the right wingers and those extremists sitting on the fringes that Mr. Ashcroft is all they will be getting, from a personnel and from a policy point of view.

- S.K.

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