Ashcroft facing liberal backlash

Focus is soon expected to switch to Mr Ashcroft (right)

By Rob Watson in Washington

Things have not been going John Ashcroft's way in the last few months.

First the former senator from Missouri lost his seat to a dead man: Mel Carnahan, whose widow Jean stepped in as the Democrat candidate when her husband died after the ballot papers had already been printed.

Now as President-elect George W Bush's attorney-general nominee, he is rapidly becoming the man America's liberals love to hate.

He is so extremist that he can't serve properly

Judith Schaefer
Civil rights activist

Mr Ashcroft famously once boasted of his conservatism, saying there are two things you find in the middle of the road: "a moderate and a dead skunk", adding he did not want to be either.

Such words could come back to haunt him and Mr Bush in the weeks ahead.

Civil rights activists such as Judith Schaefer say that as an opponent of abortion, gun control and affirmative action, Mr Ashcroft is unfit to be the country's top law man.

Extremist charges

"John Ashcroft is an extremist; he has a record of insensitivity, if not outright hostility towards women and minorities," she says.

Orrin Hatch, (right) stands by John Ashcroft (left)

"He is not the person who should be entrusted with the significant responsibilities of the attorney-general," she adds.

However this, insists Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, is just nonsense. He strongly dismisses the charges of racism and sexism against his former colleague.

"I don't think anybody in their right mind who knows John Ashcroft would say that he's biased in any way shape or form, " he says.

"John is a very fine man. I have no doubt that he as attorney-general he will enforce the law regardless of whether he agrees with the law or not," he adds.

Republicans close ranks

Although Senate democrats are spoiling for a fight over Mr Ashcroft's appointment, President-elect Bush is standing by his man.

Quite simply, we will strive to be a guardian of liberty and equal justice

John Ashcroft

"I'm confident that when people look at John Ashcroft's record, listen to what he's got to say and realise that he's not going to politicise the attorney-general's office, he will be confirmed," says Mr Bush.

One journalist who knows him well, David Goldstein of Missouri's Kansas City Star newspaper says that while the former senator doesn't drink, smoke or dance, there's more to him than that.

Serious questions

"He writes music, he rides a motorcycle, but make no mistake he holds his views very strongly and closely," he says.

"There's going be a lot of serious questions about his views at his confirmation hearings," he predicts.

John Ashcroft himself has said nothing publicly since his nomination before Christmas, using that occasion to strike a decidedly moderate tone.

"Freedom can flourish only in a culture defined by a rule of law that knows no class, that sees no colour, and bows to no creed," he said.