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John Ashcroft and the 'Bully Pulpit'
Analysis by NPR Washington Editor Ron Elving
NPR Washington Editor Ron Elving |
May 8, 2002 -- John Ashcroft is not the first U.S. attorney general to appear often on television, nor is he the first to generate controversy. But he is doing something different, and the way he has raised his personal profile has people wondering what he may want.
In recent months, Ashcroft has become a staple of the cable TV news diet. He calls in the cameras sometimes several times a week, occasionally more than once in a day. He pops up in San Antonio to announce a heightened terror alert and he travels to New York City to herald the indictment of a lawyer who defended the Muslim cleric convicted in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993.
From the halls of the Department of Justice, Ashcroft denounces the Supreme Court for allowing "virtual child pornography" and the state of Oregon for permitting assisted suicide in accordance with a ballot referendum. He promises the National Rifle Association he believes in a constitutional right for each individual to bear arms, and sure enough, that view has begun to appear in the briefs his department files.
When the Department of Justice reaches procedural decisions on the handling of terror suspects or detainees, it is the attorney general himself who tells the world. Last year, Ashcroft went on TV to introduce his new FBI director, Robert Mueller, who has been seen on that medium relatively rarely.
On one level, Ashcroft is merely using his own version of what Teddy Roosevelt called the president's "bully pulpit" to broadcast federal anti-terrorist efforts. TV coverage of live news conferences will, after all, reach far more people than Justice Department press releases. Even Ashcroft's guest spots on Larry King Live and The Late Show with David Letterman may be viewed as raising popular consciousness about homeland security.
But Ashcroft's admirers and detractors alike see him also promoting another agenda. Given his outspoken views as a religious conservative, his aggressive use of even an attorney general's "bully pulpit" makes civil libertarians uneasy. And given his pre-existing ambitions as a politician, he makes at least some Republicans think he's chasing the next opening on their national ticket.
In the recent past, Ashcroft made no secret of his interest in the presidency. While serving his one term in the Senate, he conducted a two-year exploratory campaign for the White House. He traveled around the country and made a series of lengthy speeches on the Senate floor that amounted to a platform. In the end, he decided not to run for president in 2000, but not before winning the endorsements of half a dozen prominent social conservatives. Among his contributors was Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson.
And while Ashcroft now deflects interviewers' questions about another presidential run in 2008, there are those who say he would like to move up as early as 2004 -- if Vice President Dick Cheney's heart condition should create a vacancy in the No. 2 slot.
There are plenty of other in-house prospects for Cheney's job, should it open up. The president might turn to Secretary of State Colin Powell, for example, or to Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security. But Powell is anathema to the party's social conservatives because of his stances on abortion and affirmative action. And Ridge (who also has a pro-choice problem) has not become the face of Fortress America as had been expected. Instead, Ashcroft has largely filled that role.
Earlier this spring, Ridge's office devised a five-tier system of terror warnings for use by the public as well as by first responders. But shortly after the color-code system was in place, it was Ashcroft who was deciding which level of alert the country needed to be on and Ashcroft who was making the announcements. Ridge, meanwhile, has not even been allowed to testify before congressional committees.
Next page: Ashcroft's place in the history of the Attorney General's office.
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