posted on January 14, 2001 12:46:54 AM new
"George W Bush's nominee to be the next US attorney general has been linked to an extremist pro-gun lobbying group which believes that the answer to America's school shootings is to allow pupils to be armed in the classroom." The revelation that former senator John Ashcroft has recent links with the militant Gun Owners of America(GOA) group is the latest twist in an increasingly impassioned partisan battle over a nomination which has become a major trial of political strength for Mr Bush. Even many
conservatives consider the GOA to be extremist. After a shooting at an Oregon school in May 1998 in which two pupils were killed by a fellow student, it issued a press release headed:"Lesson of school shootings: More guns needed at schools". Its director, Larry Pratt, was forced to resign as co-chairman of Pat Buchanan's 1996 presidential bid after news leaked of his links with the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations and rightwing militia groups. Mr Pratt is also head of an anti-immigrant organisation called English First. It emerged yesterday that Mr Ashcroft wrote a friendly handwritten letter in March 1998 to Mr Pratt, thanking him for drawing his attention to provisions in a juvenile justice bill which imposed increased penalties for gun law offences. As a result of the GOA's lobbying, Mr Ashcroft, who had originally been a sponsor of the bill, withdrew his support for the legislation. The letter was sent on Senate notepaper and was addressed "Dear Larry" and signed "Thanks! John".
"This is not the only known link between Mr Ashcroft and Mr Pratt. The two men know each another from a secretive but highly influential rightwing religious group called the Council for National Policy, of which Mr Pratt is a member and whose meetings Mr Ashcroft has attended. The CNP's membership is almost a who's who of US conservatism and includes the Republican congressional leaders Senator Trent Lott and Congressman Tom DeLay. The revelation of the link with Mr Pratt came as two other allegations about Mr Ashcroft's extreme rightwing links also surfaced. In the first, it was confirmed that Mr Ashcroft took time off from his bitter senatorial contest last September to meet Thomas Bugel, the president of the St Louis chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, to discuss the case of a CCC member, Charles Sell, jailed by federal authorities on charges of conspiring to murder an FBI agent. The CCC is the successor organisation of the Citizens Council, which led the fight against integration in the South in the 1950s and 60s. The CCC, whose supporters also include Senator Lott and Senator Jesse Helms, opposes interracial marriage and non-white immigration, and believes black people are genetically less intelligent than whites. It is currently mobilising to try to defeat a statewide referendum in Mississippi in April to remove the Confederate flag from the state flag."
posted on January 14, 2001 12:33:03 PM new
Is this "compassionate conservatism"? This whole thing from the election to these appointees is making me feel very uneasy about the next four years.
posted on January 14, 2001 05:37:25 PM new
Hi Rawbunzel!
Exactly, the seemingly endless doublespeak, and a propensity for almost Victorian vapid euphemisms, as with compassionate conservatism. Or even the term moderate. I have friends who are conservative, and on some political issues my views could be described as conservative, but none of them embrace racism, theocracy, or censorship.
One wonders who Bush would have selected for Attorney-General had he labelled himself conservative rather than a moderate or compassionate conservative. I suppose that he would have had to find a contemporary equivalent to Caligula.
The series of links that krs has listed above provide an excellent brief synopsis of past actions and statements which have led so many to be deeply troubled by Ashcroft's selection. The conventional wisdom of pundits and political commentators remains that the senate "club" mentality will prevail and that Ashcroft will be confirmed. We can only hope that once again they are wrong.
spelling error caught just in the nick of time
[ edited by Antiquary on Jan 14, 2001 05:40 PM ]
posted on January 14, 2001 06:31:10 PM new
Hi Antiquary!
I have friends that border on conservative but living where I do the liberals out number them!
The first thing about your post that hits me is.....what a great user name Caligula would make! LOL!
I hope those TV pundits are wrong this time too. It does seem as though the tide should be going against Ashcroft being confirmed and if it isn't I wonder why not.Most thinking Americans seem to be against it but then we got Bush so they'll probably find a way to force this fellow on us too.YUCK. Can't tell you how sick that makes me feel.
posted on January 14, 2001 09:30:57 PM new
That's a neat concept, gravid, disposable politicians. No deposit, no return. Let's hope it turns out that way.
Rawbunzel, yes it would. I'd considered the appropriateness of Nero, but decided he was too artistic for attorney general analogies.
posted on January 15, 2001 12:50:59 PM new
And Washington State's illustrious senator, Patty Murray - who "didn't get to save one single salmon" during Clinton's impeachment, wanted to arm our school teachers after another school shooting. God, or something, help us, please. We vote these idiots into office.
