Ashcroft Greeted By Protests In Texas: ‘I Think History Will Be Very Kind’ To Bush
Ashcroft Greeted By Protests In Texas: ‘I Think History Will Be Very Kind’ To Bush
Yesterday, former attorney general John Ashcroft spoke at the University of Texas at Austin on the differences between the Obama and Bush administrations in a lecture hosted by the Young Conservatives of Texas and College Republicans. Although “[m]ost in attendance were respectful of Ashcroft’s right to speak,” he was greeted by a group of protesters who waved “signs of dissent” and booed when he first appeared.
During his speech, Ashcroft launched a vociferous defense of both Bush’s career and his own, saying that history will judge Bush well. While he said that the former president made some mistakes, Ashcroft said that his own record was perfect: “I don’t have a mark on my conscience.” From the report by the Daily Texan:
“I think history will be very kind to [former President George W. Bush],” Ashcroft said as he began discussing the powers of the president, drawing cheers and gasps.
Ashcroft acknowledged the fact that Bush is not a perfect man and made some mistakes. [...]
At one point Ashcroft noticed a dry-erase board to the side of the stage and began to describe the overlap of power between Congress and the president to declare war. As Ashcroft made his way to the right side of the stage, one protester made sure to exclaim, “No, it’s not a waterboard!” Ashcroft didn’t hear him and proceeded to draw a Venn diagram. [...]
Ashcroft said he doesn’t regret any decisions he made during his time as attorney general. “I don’t have a mark on my conscience,” Ashcroft said.
Ashcroft’s appearance was part of a blitz by former Bush administration officials to secure a good legacy for their boss. Both Vice President Cheney and former White House flack Ari Fleischer recently tried to justify the war in Iraq by falsely tying together Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda (again). Loyal Bushies have even started a Bush-Cheney alumni association to “help build a lasting legacy.” Karl Rove, the man behind securing Bush’s reputation, plans to release a book that will “name names” of all the Bush haters.
Since Ashcroft can’t seem to remember any of his misdeeds, we’re here to help him out: He was the chief architect of the invasive Patriot Act, and maintains to this day that Bush is “among the most respectful of all leaders ever” of civil liberties. Of course, in 2003, he also approved waterboarding and other torture techniques on detainees.
The Daily Texan notes that the only time the entire audience cheered for Ashcroft was when he “pok[ed] fun at his own political past,” noting how he lost the 2000 Missouri U.S. Senate race to a deceased rival.
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Of course it’s not TORTURE when Ashcroft approves it.
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March 26th, 2009 at 12:06 pmPerhaps 7-deferment Johnny-boy had better check with chimpy- who maintains that he never made any mistakes.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:07 pmWell, gee, Mr. Ashcroft, how will history have a chance to judge you and President Bush well if — every time someone brings up the mess you’ve left behin — Republican whine that no one should be bringing up the facts of the mess left behind.
just curious.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:08 pmThis gives a whole new meaning to the permanent campaign.
http://www.pufferfishblog.com/
March 26th, 2009 at 12:08 pm. . . make that “left behind.”
my apologies.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:09 pm.
Q U E S T I O N:
If I murder the family of a suspected killer, it then makes me a murderer…
If I rape the daughter of a rapist, that makes me a rapist…
If I rob the house of the bank robber, that makes me a thief…
If I torture suspected terrorists, what does that make me?
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March 26th, 2009 at 12:10 pmgood grief, I need to read more closely before posting:
“Republicans”
again, my apologies.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:10 pmIt’s not how history will judge you. It’s how the man upstairs will. My bet is you’ll both need to dress for the heat. Lots of it.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:12 pmMy question is…Why isn’t this little piece of crap Asswipe locked up.? Why are they all still running all over the country spouting bull shit bush’s deadly deed’s as good..Time for a special prosacuter I think…Blessings
March 26th, 2009 at 12:12 pmKarl Rove is going to be naming names of Bush haters for the next 1,000 years….
March 26th, 2009 at 12:13 pmName names eh Karl? That will make a New York phone book look tiny.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pmMethinks history has already been way too kind to Bush.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pmMethinks Ashcroft has a convenient short memory. What about that little “incident” when you were drugged up in the hospital and some of Bush’s stooges demanded you sign off on some illegal and unlawful activity. That’s only one of thousands of such dirty deeds.
If former Reagan/Bush Sr. FBI Head William Sessions and former Ambassador to the UN under Bush Sr. have their way, Mr. Ashcroft may be one day lauding the Bush years from a jail cell:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/ content/ article/ 2009/ 03/ 22/ AR2009032201945.html
How’s that whole “legacy building” thing working out for you neocons? Let the eagle soar, beyotch!
March 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pmDharma says:
I hope that I’m at the very top of KKKarl’s list.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pmToo bad Ashcroft didn’t get clobbered by the golf ball sized hail that ruined everything.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pmPerfection, thy name is Republican.
No republican has ever made any mistake ever — they are perfect in all ways. Even apparrent ‘gaffes’ are carefully planned strategies. No mistakes.
The last 8 years were a utopian dream in America, we were just too damn selfish to notice that everything was perfect under our cabal of perfect leaders who were perfectly running our government in the most perfect manner possible. History will see the perfection that we had, but could not recognize, and will lament and wail that we allowed that perfection to slip away. Oh, the anguish, oh the agony…….
March 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pm“I don’t have a mark on my conscience,” Ashcroft said.
____________
That’s because he doesn’t HAVE a conscience…
March 26th, 2009 at 12:18 pmBush has caused the deaths of over one million human beings who never meant us any harm with his illegal, unjustified invasion of Iraq. He will be remembered as a butcher along the lines of Adolf Hitler, not kindly. That Bush is allowed to live free in million dollar house in Dallas is inexcusable. He should be on trial for crimes against humanity, in a sane world. Corporate media protects him, weak Democrats like Pelosi protect him, disgusting whitewashers protect this mass murderer. Obama is not doing enough, I hope he is listening. America wants justice but the corporate media is ruthless in protecting this turd.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:18 pmMax-1 Says:
If I torture suspected terrorists, what does that make me?
republican.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:18 pmIs Ashcroft insinuating that historians are really stupid?
March 26th, 2009 at 12:20 pmAshcroft said he doesn’t regret any decisions he made during his time as attorney general.
Not even hiding Lady Liberty with a curtain?
March 26th, 2009 at 12:23 pmThats very ‘Way of the Master’
March 26th, 2009 at 12:24 pmshoeless Says:
Is Ashcroft insinuating that historians are really stupid?
_________
No… just desperately hoping…
March 26th, 2009 at 12:24 pmWell now, you wouldn’t because you don’t HAVE a conscience.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:25 pmMax-1 Says:
If I torture suspected terrorists, what does that make me?
____________
A Republican?
March 26th, 2009 at 12:25 pmOoops… ya got there first, Cagey…
March 26th, 2009 at 12:26 pmPile a group of naked detainees on top of each other in pyramid fashion = a prank or a way to gain information.
Have a statue of a woman with her breast exposed = pornography.
Mr. Ashcroft’s priorities need to be rethought.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:26 pmpastcaring Says:
Well now, you wouldn’t because you don’t HAVE a conscience.
__________
See #18… heh… great minds, blah blah blah…
March 26th, 2009 at 12:28 pmshoeless Says:
Ashcroft said he doesn’t regret any decisions he made during his time as attorney general.
Not even hiding Lady Liberty with a curtain?
These is even better than my attempt at the same concept. Lady Liberty was indeed hidden by Ashcroft and the rest of the actions of BushCo.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:29 pm“This” not “these”. Stupid fingers.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:30 pmYeah, sorry…but my liberal mind hit overload when I read the post and I didn’t have patience to read.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:32 pmDespite what Ashcroft thinks his about his own personal accountability, he has made clearly defined mistakes while working under the Bush administration, which can’t simply be swept under the carpet. He was exceedingly negligent in his evaluation of the threat of terrorism and committed a tangible crime (as most people would put it) by lying to the American public. His purpose seems to be supporting the reformation of the republican party by rehashing “successes” of the previous administration.
Evan
March 26th, 2009 at 12:32 pmhttp://www.beyondrace.com
pastcaring Says:
#29 The Republic of Stupidity Says:
Yeah, sorry…but my liberal mind hit overload when I read the post and I didn’t have patience to read.
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What can I say? Great minds… this stuff just auto-writes itself some days, huh?
March 26th, 2009 at 12:37 pmdeebaser,
Yes, very Zen…
… Or as they say in America, the “Christian Nation” compassion based on the Golden Rule. For the moment I take up that torture implement, I then welcome it’s use upon me. Also, to act like a criminal is the moment I deserve to be treated like one. To date, Ashcroft and their sycophantic followers have yet to name the redeeming quality to TORTURE.
Cagey and TRoS,
I know some blue dogs that think like Republicans do. It’s less a Red/Blue divide than a divide of morals and principles. Some have ‘em, while others would rather F’em.
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March 26th, 2009 at 12:40 pmThis is the ultimate disconnect with the defenders of the past 8 years…defenitions.
Laura Ingraham, if you have to define that you are doing satire on Megan McCain….then its not satire.
Micheal Steele, if you have to define that you are the leader of the party and not Rush….then you are not the leader.
And if you have to launch a project to define the Bush legacy…then he really has no legacy.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:40 pmI think he draped a statue of Justice.
Justice is a blind god,
To that we blacks are wise.
Her bandage hides two festering sores
That once, perhaps, were eyes.
Langston Hughes (I think)
That’s what DOJ under Ashcroft made me think of.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:41 pmp.s. to my last post @#35,
Although the big “D” aka “RupturedAllReady” might disagree.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pmThe only way history will judge BushCo kindly is if we fail to remember what was done in our name. It is imperative that we never grow complacent in the face of Republican fascism. If the media will not remember, then we must teach it to our children, and never let the United States become corrupted by Republicans ever again.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:46 pmPeople who should never be allowed in government:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:46 pmThose who say “government is not the solution, it is the problem”;
Those who expect to be called away in the rapture any day now as this sinful world is destroyed;
Those who have a smug certitude that refuses to allow them to admit to ever making a mistake;
Those who have such a self-loathing revulsion to the human form that they order a statue covered up.
Everytime one of these Bushies talks about their time in the White House, they always feel the need to tell everyone that they have no regrets about what they did.
A person who truely has nothing to regret seldom feels the need to say that.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:49 pm“I don’t have a mark on my conscience,” Ashcroft said.
First you have to have a conscience, Asscrock.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pmAsscrack spent tax money to put a blanket on the heaving bosom of Lady Justice. Lady Liberty stands in New York Harbor. The right-winger blble crowd, of whom Johnny is a member, would like to spend tax money to enshroud her in a Burkha.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:58 pmMore of the Bush Reivsionism Tour ™.
First, 9/11 didn’t happen on Bush’s Watch. Then, Saddam was linked to 9/11 and the OK City bombing.
Spare. Me.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:02 pmIf Karl is going release a book that names names of all the Bush haters, he better publish it in PDF form. Publishing a book listing 6.7 billion names could deforest most of the planet.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:08 pmisnt that a sign of a sociopath?
March 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pmAshcroft will be right…..if he and his bunch write the history that’s kind to Bush. I wonder if Harding and other substandard (criminal) Presidents had Ashcroft’s and others support after they headed into the sunset?
March 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pmJohn Asswipe may not have a mark on his conscience because he doesn’t have a conscience. Most people would be searching their conscience for a long time if the people of their state voted for a dead man over them.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pmdid anyone ask him about Gonzales?
March 26th, 2009 at 1:15 pmwhy does that always strike me as a threat?
March 26th, 2009 at 1:23 pmIf history records that Bush died in infamy under confinement by the World Court – I would regard that as being kind to Bush.
And don’t forget, Ashcroft on running for office in Missouri was defeated by a dead man.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:06 pmHe is right about one thing, he does not have a mark on his conscience. For the obvious reason. We are speaking of a man so anal, so up tight and repressed, that he ordered 20,000 dollars worth of material to cover the statues outside the DOJ. He was giving a speech and did not want the bare breasts of the statue to show on television.
He is a minister. Baptist of course. And Republican. What a mess. Find me a minister in politics and I will show you a mess.Even in a state as conservative as MO, he was too conservative. And on top of everything else, he had the nerve to breed children.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:20 pmKarl Rove, the man behind securing Bush’s reputation, plans to release a book that will “name names” of all the Bush haters.
That’s going to be a VERY long list, Karl.
You can put my name on that list, Karl. Will you be writing it from prison?
March 26th, 2009 at 2:56 pmWhat kind of morally disfigured wingnut approves of torture but insists on covering the Lady Justice statue’s bare breasts because the are indecent?
March 26th, 2009 at 3:00 pmJohn Asswipe helped get almost 3,000 U.S. citizens killed on 9/11, literally making him a co-conspirator of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, by:
1) Downgrading the terrorist threat priority at the Justice Department.
2) Blowing off the desperate pleas of FBI field agents in the Midwest, who weeks before 9/11 arrested one of the planned al Qaeda hijackers who just wanted to know how to fly a 747 in the air, not how to take off or land one. These FBI field agents wanted to search this guys personal effects. They repeatedly petitioned Asswipe’s Justice Department for permission to conduct such a search. FISA could have been used to conduct this search, even without a search warrant, since this guy was a foreign national. But John Asswipe and other top Republican officials at the Justice Department did nothing…they were instead focused on “protecting” our country from prostitutes, pornographers and druggies…and let the 9/11 hijackers slip by them.
3) Following the 9/11 attacks, a conservative mailed lethal anthrax in envelopes to two sitting Democratic U.S. senators. Shortly afterward, tens of thousands of copycat non-lethal mailings ensued, primarily targeting liberal individuals and organizations across America. We haven’t heard much about this second terrorist wave because John Asswipe’s Justice Department implemented a policy to hide the true extent of this second wave of right-wing terrorist attacks inside America…which continue to this day. But in mid-December 2001, I saw a CNN bottom-screen news blurb stating that the FBI was conducting 15,000+ investigations into these right-wing copycat terrorist mailings…just two months after the initial lethal anthrax mailing. This scrolled on CNN for less than thirty minutes one mid-December 2001 night, then disappeared. Who yanked it? Who ordered it yanked? Someone in the Bush administration, maybe at John Asswipe’s Justice Department? I just wonder what the “grand total” is by now, and how many of the right-wing terrorist mailers have been apprehended?
March 26th, 2009 at 4:33 pmConscience?
What conscience, Ashcroft?
March 26th, 2009 at 5:07 pmYES! Let us think progressively as we progress right down the toilet bowl. We love America! Hey buddy, can I borrow a match for this here flag? Thanks…. nice beard by the way
March 26th, 2009 at 6:11 pmDoes anyone remember the time Ashcroft was in the hospital and Alberto Gonzalez and Andy Card tried to get him to sign off on some action memo while he was sick?
March 26th, 2009 at 11:14 pmAnd the lying continues even after death.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:28 amIt is a shame that the GOP has let America down and then will not even own up to their mistakes.