WASHINGTON – Maryland Sen. Paul Sarbanes joined the ranks of Democrats opposing Attorney General John Ashcroft, saying the former Missouri senator’s “extreme” views against school desegregation and judicial appointments made him unfit to the be the “lawyer for all the people.”
But the Democratic opposition — which included Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D- Baltimore — was not enough to derail Ashcroft’s confirmation early Thursday afternoon.
The final vote was 58 to 42, with eight Democrats siding with all 50 Republicans who supported Ashcroft.
The vote capped almost two days of debate on the Senate floor. Sarbanes’ comments came a day after Mikulski said she was “deeply troubled” by Ashcroft’s record on women’s rights, civil rights and judicial appointments.
Although not able to cast a vote, Maryland’s four Democratic House members also expressed their opposition to Ashcroft’s nomination. Reps. Benjamin Cardin Jr. and Elijah Cummings of Baltimore, Steny Hoyer of Mechanicsville and Albert Wynn of Largo signed a letter with about two-thirds of the House Democratic Caucus who opposed President Bush’s pick for attorney general.
Sarbanes, D-Baltimore, said Thursday he generally defers to a president’s right to pick Cabinet members with particular political views. But he said he was concerned that Ashcroft would be unable to look beyond his political agenda in carrying out his duties as attorney general.
“Senator Ashcroft has never hid the fact he is out there in the extreme,” Sarbanes said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Moderation is not a word which enters into his political thinking.”
As attorney general in Missouri, Ashcroft’s attempts to derail school desegregation cases were blocked by state and federal judges, Sarbanes said.
He said he also had “great concern” over how, as a senator, Ashcroft blocked Missouri Supreme Court judge Ronnie White’s appointment to the federal bench. Ashcroft told fellow senators that White would use his lifetime appointment to push laws in a “pro-criminal” direction to suit his political agenda.
“Judge White was ambushed on the floor of the United States Senate,” said Sarbanes from that same floor Thursday. “That ambush was in effect staged by John Ashcroft.”
Sarbanes said Ashcroft’s nomination flies in the face of President Bush’s Inauguration Day pledge to bring America together as one nation.
“John Ashcroft does not carry out that vision,” he said.
But Senate Republicans defended Ashcroft just as vigorously during the two days of debate, saying he has put personal views aside in the past when he was Missouri attorney general.
They said Ashcroft is one of the most-qualified persons nominated to the position — noting his tenure as U.S. senator and governor and attorney general of Missouri — and accused his critics of attacking him for his strongly conservative religious views.