January 16, 2001                                                                               Contact: Jeanne Lopatto, 202/224-5225

Attorney General of the United States

Mr. Chairman, let me begin by acknowledging you as the Chairman of the Committee as we begin this new session. I wish you the best in your first confirmation hearing.

I see members of Senator Ashcroft's family here with him today, including his highly accomplished wife who has been a professor of business law, here in the District, at Howard University for the past five years. I want to take a moment to let the Ashcroft family know that we appreciate their many sacrifices while John has served the public.

John Ashcroft is no stranger to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He served on our Committee with distinction over the past four years - working closely with members on both sides of the aisle on a variety of issues ranging from privacy rights to racial profiling. As a member of the Committee, he proved himself a leader in many areas, including the fight against drugs and violence, the assessment of the proper role of the Justice Department, and the protection of victims rights.

John has an impressive almost 30-year record of public service:

• 8 years as Missouri State Attorney General during which time he was elected by his attorney general peers across the nation to head the National Association of Attorneys General.
• 8 years as Governor of the State of Missouri during which time he was elected by the 50 governors to serve as head of the National Governors' Association.
• 6 years in the U.S. Senate, 4 of which he has served with distinction on the Judiciary Committee.

Of the 67 Attorneys General in the history of this country, only a handful come close to even having some of the qualifications that John Ashcroft brings in assuming the position of chief law enforcement officer of this great nation.

The Department of Justice, of course, encompasses broad jurisdiction. It includes the executive administration of organizations ranging from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Marshall Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, all of the United States Attorneys, to the Bureau of Prisons. It includes, among other things, enforcement of the law in areas including antitrust, terrorism, fraud, money laundering, organized crime, drugs, and immigration, just to mention a few. To effectively prevent and manage crises in these important areas, one thing is certain: we need at the helm a no-nonsense person with the background and experience of John Ashcroft. Those charged with enforcing the law of the nation must demonstrate both a proper understanding of that law and a determination to uphold its letter and its spirit. This is the standard I have applied to nominees in the past, and this is the standard I am applying to John Ashcroft here.

During John Ashcroft's 30-year career in public service, he has worked to establish a number of things to keep Americans safe and free from criminal activities:

• Tougher sentencing laws for serious crimes.
• Keeping drugs out of the hands of children.
• Worked to improve our nation's immigration laws.
• Protected citizens from fraud.
• Protected competition in business.
• He has supported funding increases for law enforcement.
• He held the first hearings ever on racial profiling.
• He has been a leader for victims' rights in the courts of law and otherwise.
• He helped to enact the Violence Against Women Bill.
• He supported provisions making violence at abortion clinic fines non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.
• He authored anti-stalking laws.
• He has fought to allow women accused of homicide to have the privilege of presenting battered spouse syndrome evidence in the courts of law. As governor, he commuted the sentences of two women who did not have the privilege of presenting battered spouse syndrome in their case.
• He signed Missouri's hate crimes bill into law.

I could go on and on. His record is distinguished.

Senator Ashcroft, during these hearings, we are eager to hear - and the American people are eager to hear - your plans for making America a safer place to live. I can't begin to tell you the number of people who have said to me that they are tired of living in fear. They want to go to sleep at night without worrying about the safety of their children or about becoming victims of crime themselves. As someone who knows you as a person and who is familiar with your distinguished 30-year record of enforcing and upholding the law, I can tell you that I feel a great sense of comfort and a new-found security in your nomination to be our nation's chief law enforcement officer.

Mr. Chairman, we have served with John Ashcroft, and we know that he is a man of integrity, committed to the rule of law and the Constitution. We know that he is a man of compassion, of faith, and of devotion to family. We know that he is a man of impeccable credentials and many accomplishments. Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, last week praised Senator Ashcroft as a "fair" and "just" man. Sometimes in life, though, the measure of a person is best seen in times of adversity. So it is with John Ashcroft who, after a difficult battle for something that meant a great deal to him -- re-election the Senate -- resisted calls to challenge the outcome of that election. His own words during this difficult time say it best: "Some things are more important than politics, and I believe doing what's right is the most important thing we can do. I think as public officials we have the opportunity to model values for our culture - responsibility, dignity, decency, integrity, and respect. And if we can only model those when it's politically expedient to do so, we've never modeled the values, we've only modeled political expediency." Contrary to what a few special interest groups with a narrow political agenda would have us believe, these are not the words of a divisive ideologue, they are the words of a uniter who is willing to do the right thing, even when it means putting himself last.

Mr. Chairman, I have one request of my colleagues as we proceed. In keeping with our promise to work in a bipartisan fashion, I ask that we begin with a rejection of the politics of division. If we want to encourage the most qualified citizens to serve in government, we must do everything we can to stop what has been termed the "politics of personal destruction." This is not to say that we should put an end to an open and candid debate on policy issues. Quite the contrary: our system of government is designed to promote the expression of these differences and our Constitution protects it. But the fact is that all of us - both Democrats and Republicans - know the difference between legitimate policy debate and unwarranted personal attacks promoted - and sometimes urged - by narrow interest groups.

I was saddened to read in the New York Times on Saturday that "the leader of a major liberal group opposing Mr. Ashcroft's nomination expressed disappointment that the comments were not much different from those many politicians offer in religious settings." They quoted this "leader" as saying '[t]his, clearly, will not do it,' this person said of hopes that the speech might help defeat the nomination." I ask my colleagues to be especially cognizant in this context of the enormous harm that will come to our Nation and our democracy if we fall into the traps of the narrow special interest and allow the politics of personal destruction to continue for the benefit of a narrow few but to the detriment of a greater many.

John Ashcroft, like many of us, is a man of strongly held views. I have every confidence, based on his distinguished record, that as Attorney General, he will vigorously work to enforce the law - whether or not the law happens to be consistent with his personal views. I know that some of my colleagues will want to question the nominee on that point in particular, and I look forward to those exchanges.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, you know that I would have preferred a format similar to that followed for President Clinton's nominees for Attorney General: a two-day hearing with outside interest groups submitting their testimony in writing. But I'm sure that you will endeavor to be fair as we proceed with this hearing. Thank you.

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