Washington Post: The Ashcroft Smear. It is not disloyal — in fact, it is a form of patriotism — to ask whether government is getting the powers most appropriate to the task, whether it is using them wisely, whether it may be missing important potential strategies, or even whether it is going off half- cocked against the wrong people.
The Bush administration is counting on the fear of the American people to sustain its assault on civil rights and common decency.
I’m among the vast majority supporting, for the most part, the administration’s military action in Afghanistan and its overall response to the terrorist attacks of September 11. But that does not make me a supporter of trashing the Constitution, as this administration seems bent on doing in the name of protecting us from further attacks.
The Bush people, helped by a disgustingly compliant media, are selling a lie. They are telling us we can avoid risk by turning America into a quasi-police state.
We accept risk to be more free. That is the bargain we made in enacting our Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the first place.
We know that some guilty people go free because we protect the rights of suspects. Note that language — “the rights of suspects.” We protect the rights of the guilty because it’s the only way to protect the rights of the innocent.
John Ashcroft’s descent into McCarthy-esque charges, his claim that questioning police-state tactics is tantamount to treason, is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a long time. Ashcroft is challenging the patriotism of patriots. If he had any sense of shame, he would beg forgiveness.
I listened to part of his testimony yesterday. It was frightening to hear the nation’s top law-enforcement official repeatedly refuse to answer basic questions, especially about the kangaroo courts they’re calling military tribunals, where people could be put to death on the vote of two people with no appeal. Ashcroft wouldn’t even say whether the standard of guilt should be “beyond a reasonable doubt” as opposed to “preponderance of the evidence.” (Here’s the transcript.)
These are ugly times. Please speak up. If you don’t, the republic is in trouble.
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