The Senate engaged in a fierce debate Wednesday over the confirmation of Atty. Gen.-nominee John Ashcroft as Democratic critics sought to underscore his deeply conservative record on a range of sensitive social issues.
With Republicans unified behind the nominee and several Democrats also pledging their support, Ashcroft’s confirmation appears assured once it comes to a vote, which is scheduled for Thursday.
But the struggle over the nomination has important political consequences in shaping public perceptions of the Bush administration and in testing the strength of liberal activists to oppose future judicial nominees considered unfriendly to such causes as abortion rights.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota predicted at least 30 of the Senate’s 50 Democrats would vote against Ashcroft, and he said a negative vote by at least 41 “would be the strongest statement I think we could make.”
A leading Democratic liberal, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, became the sixth Democrat to announce his support for Ashcroft.
Senate rules allow 41 members to block a nomination by a filibuster, although Democrats have promised not to do that with Ashcroft, who needs 51 votes to be confirmed.
The confirmation battle has emerged as the first confrontation between the Bush administration and congressional Democrats, drawing attention to party differences over politically polarizing issues such as affirmative action, abortion rights and gay rights.
The terms of the debate also help set the public portrait of Ashcroft, previously a relatively unknown Missouri Republican senator.
Again and again, Republican supporters came to the Senate floor Wednesday to offer testimonials to their former colleague’s personal integrity. They emphasized a promise Ashcroft made during his confirmation hearings to enforce laws with which he disagrees, including protections for abortion rights that Ashcroft has fought against.
“He is such a man of his word that, if he were to tell a fib, you’d know it right now,” said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). “He’s that straight-laced, that straightforward, that transparent.”
But Democratic critics expressed doubts that Ashcroft would vigorously enforce laws that run counter to his strongly held views. Several senators argued that Ashcroft’s record as Missouri’s elected attorney general and as a senator undercut his assurances.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said he has “a long and detailed record of relentless opposition to fundamental issues of civil rights.”
He called Ashcroft’s vigorous legal opposition in the 1980s to a voluntary school desegregation plan for the St. Louis area “an outrage against the children of Missouri.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) cited Ashcroft’s opposition in the Senate to confirming James Hormel, an openly gay nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.
“Do we expect Atty. Gen. Ashcroft to defend tomorrow’s Matthew Shephard when he cannot show tolerance to today’s James Hormel?” Durbin said, referring to the gay Wyoming student who was beaten and left to die hanging on a fence.
Democrats also brought up incidents in which Ashcroft has been accused of insensitivity to racial minorities. Among them was his role spearheading opposition to the federal judicial nomination of Ronnie White, a black judge on the Missouri Supreme Court.
Still, Dodd said on the Senate floor that he expects Ashcroft “will keep his word to uphold the laws of the land … and that compels me to give him the benefit of the doubt on this score.”
There are signs Democrats now may see Ashcroft as a symbol they can use against the Republican Party in the same way former House Speaker Newt Gingrich personified concerns about the harshness of Republican policies.
“He becomes shorthand for extremism and intolerance,” said Jim Jordan, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
