John Ashcroft
AKA John David Ashcroft
Born: 9-May-
1942
Birthplace: Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
Religion: Born-Again Christian [1]
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Politician
Party Affiliation: Republican
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: US Attorney General, 2001-05
More than merely a cliché, John Ashcroft really is holier than thou. His
grandfather and father were both evangelical preachers, and Rev Ashcroft's
household had strict rules. Movies, for example, were not allowed, because
even in the 1940s and '50s the Ashcrofts did not approve of Hollywood's
liberal lifestyles. In high school, Ashcroft worked at the local Dairy
Queen, but he says he never attended a dance or had premarital sex, and he
does not swear, smoke, or drink alcoholic beverages. He has refused to
participate in raffles, even to support conservative causes, because he does
not gamble.
Ashcroft studied law at Yale, and promptly secured a position teaching law
at Southwest Missouri State University -- a job which carried the perk of
immunity from the Vietnam era draft. He was appointed state auditor in 1973,
and promoted to assistant attorney general in 1975. He was elected state
attorney general in 1976, and held that office until 1985, when he was
elected Governor of Missouri. As Governor, he vetoed a bill that would have
allowed liquor sales on Sundays, and another act that would have permitted a
smidgen of alcohol in candy. In vetoing funding for an AIDS care center, he
was quoted saying, "Well, they're there because of their own misconduct, and
it wasn't very reputable misconduct, either."
Ashcroft was elected to the US Senate in 1994, where he opposed condom
distribution and needle-exchange programs, and once waved a sonogram of his
unborn grandchild as an argument against federal funding for abortions. He
became one of the first politicians to advocate federal funding for
"faith-based programs", and earned perfect marks from the Christian
Coalition. When asked whether he had any problem legislating morality,
Ashcroft once explained, "I think
all we should legislate is morality. We shouldn't legislate immorality." On a break from
Washington, Ashcroft returned to his Missouri estate in 1997, where he says
he saw a flock of bald eagles flying across the sunrise, and felt God's
inspiration to write his famous love ballad to America, "Let the eagle
soar."
Running for a second Senate term in 2000, Ashcroft lost to
Mel Carnahan, who had been killed in a plane crash three weeks before the election.
Carnahan's wife was appointed to take her husband's seat, and as Ashcroft's
consolation prize he was appointed US Attorney General by
George W. Bush, a job that made him the nation's highest law enforcement officer.
After September 11, 2001, Ashcroft was generally credited as 'architect' of
the PATRIOT Act, which established several short cuts to circumvent such
traditional and constitutional safeguards as search warrants and judicial
oversight of police. Ashcroft authorized secret arrests and detentions,
expanded wiretapping, blocked Freedom of Information Act requests, OK'd
eavesdropping on defense lawyers and infiltration of political protest
groups. He tried to organize a nationwide "tips" line for mail carriers,
home repairmen, delivery drivers and others whose occupations bring them in
contact with the general public to report suspicious activity. For all this
effort, however, Ashcroft had surprisingly few successful prosecutions
against terrorists, and the Justice Dept was caught several times playing
"shell games" with the numbers. For example, crimes such as writing bad
checks or protesters trespassing on a Navy base were listed as "terror
convictions", despite having no cited connection to any acts of terrorism.
Prior to Ashcroft's appointment, the Justice Department's pornography
prosecutions were almost exclusively
child pornography, but
Ashcroft oversaw a self-described War on Pornography. At least half a dozen
agents were assigned to monitor on-line pornography full-time, forty hours a
week surfing the internet and taking notes. Dozens of prosecutors were
assigned to a special anti-porn office, and Ashcroft publicly complained
that pornography "invades our homes persistently though the mail, phone,
VCR, cable TV and the Internet," and "has strewn its victims from coast to
coast". Under Ashcroft, the Justice Dept prosecuted filmmakers
for
fictional videos that included rape scenes, waged
battle against the makers of HBO's
Real Sex, and threatened
companies that supply 'erotica' films available for rent in most American
hotels.
Despite his long-time support for "state's rights", he brought federal
action against Oregon's law allowing assisted suicide, and against
California's law allowing medicinal use of marijuana. Uncomfortable with the
bare-breasted statue called "Spirit of Justice" in Justice Department
headquarters, he ordered the statue covered. As Attorney General, he held
daily devotions in his office, with senior staff members "invited" to
attend. He also distributed photocopied lyrics to "Let the Eagles Soar",
asking department heads and other high-level Justice Department officials to
sing along with him.
He has said he was anointed with oil "in the manner of King David" as he
took each successive political office in his career. When he became a
Senator his father anointed him with Crisco brand cooking oil, and died the
next day. Before becoming Attorney General, Ashcroft had Supreme Court
Justice
Clarence Thomas do the anointing.
Since leaving the Bush administration, Ashcroft has pursued his first
private sector employment since his Dairy Queen days -- his services are now
available as a lobbyist. His clients include Choicepoint, Israel Aircraft
Industries International, and Oracle Corporation. His fees reportedly start
in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars, and apparently he is worth
every penny -- with his contacts deep inside the Bush administration,
Ashcroft has had remarkable success securing his clients' interests in
Washington.
His wife, Janet Ashcroft, is on the Board of Trustees at Patrick Henry
College, a fundamentalist Christian college. Its stated goals include
producing graduates "who will lead our nation and shape our culture with
timeless biblical values". The school is not accredited, but since its
founding in 1998, dozens of its students have served internships under
Republican Congressmen, Senators, and in the Bush-Cheney White House.
[1] Assemblies of God (Pentecostal).
Father: J. Robert Ashcroft (preacher)
Mother: Grace Ashcroft
Brother: (older)
Brother: (younger)
Wife: Janet Elise Roede Ashcroft (m. 1967)
Daughter: Martha Grace Patterson (attorney)
Son: John Robert Ashcroft (teacher)
Son: Andrew David Ashcroft (US Navy)
High School: Hillcrest High School, Springfield, MO
(1960)
University: BA, Yale University (1964)
Law School:
JD, University of Chicago (1967)
Teacher:
Business Law, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield MO
Administrator:
Board of Reference, Oral Roberts University
Blackwater Chair of Ethics Committee (2011-)
US Attorney General (2001-04)
US Senator, Missouri (1995-2001)
Governor of Missouri (1985-93)
Attorney General of Missouri (1977-84)
Missouri State Official Assistant Attorney General (1975-77)
Missouri State Auditor (1973-75)
American Compass
Council for National Policy
Federalist Society
John McCain 2008
McCain-Palin Compliance Fund
Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity honorary
Dairy Queen Springfield, MO (age 13)
Draft Deferment: Vietnam
Born-Again Christian
Traveled to the USSR Dec-1991
Cholecystectomy (Mar-2004)
US Big Brother Award Worst Public Official or Department 2002
Sued by the ACLU (6-Aug-2003)
Funeral: Ronald Reagan (2004)
Norwegian Ancestry
Rotten Library Page:
John Ashcroft
Appears on the cover of:
US News and World Report, 26-Jan-2004,
DETAILS: The Real John Ashcroft -- America's top cop is loved and hated. Here's
what makes him tick
