by Ed Garvey

The last time I dared mention Attorney General John Ashcroft in a column, Sly (WTDY radio's John Sylvester) said he would resign from the Democratic Party in protest over my suggestion that breaking from the Democratic and progressive Republican coalition to be the deciding vote in support of Ashcroft's confirmation was, to be charitable, not Sen. Russ Feingold's finest moment.

So I return to that vote with fear and trepidation. I don't know if Sly ever resigned but I do know that Ashcroft has exceeded all expectations. This guy is dangerous! And now his pal, John Warner, wants in on the action.

But instead of a dialogue or moral outrage from Feingold, Sen. Herb Kohl and other Democrats, we have grown accustomed to silence or tepid criticism. Here is the radical statement of Kohl, our senior senator: "In general, I would tend to feel strongly that any arrests made here in the United States should be tried under our court system." Now that's tough!

Maureen Dowd writes that even Nadine Strossen, head of the ACLU, seems to have lost her voice. Editorials, those letters to the editor that get published, and the barrage of demagogues on CNBC, MSNBC and Fox tell us that we should not focus on civil liberties and freedom, we should keep our eyes on the prize of defeating "the evil-doers" or the chase for Osama bin Laden.

Sounds familiar. We should listen intently as the grab bag called the Northern Alliance marches on the Taliban and not worry about years of occupation or rounding up possible terrorists. And just as we think the "war" is almost over, the right wing pushes to finish George Sr.'s war. In other words, let's get the Hitler of the last decade while our troops are in the neighborhood. Think about anything except our attorney general and the incredible effort to push the delete button on our right to call ourselves a nation of laws.

In Sunday's paper, it said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., - never accused of having a brilliant mind but now a frequent guest on Larry King as an "expert" - sent a letter to Donald Rumsfeld asking if the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which bars the military from acting as domestic policemen, should be repealed. "Our way of life has forever changed," Warner wrote.

What's next? Turn loose the CIA on the campus peace community? Could we station the infantry on the campuses just in case discussion breaks out? Have Lynn and Dick Cheney set the university's curriculum?

Normally, one would expect the attorney general to gently inquire if the nurses have recently changed Warner's medication and then suggest that the senator take some time off. But with Ashcroft at the helm, anything is possible. If Warner came up with that notion you can bet Ashcroft will enlist George Will to chime in. I can almost see it now. "When local police chiefs refuse to round up people who look Middle Eastern on the silly ground that this is racial profiling, despite the order of the Ashcroftians, they should be replaced with the Marines. What have we got here? Runaway democracy, plain and simple. Whom do these cops think they are messing with?"

When you travel these days, you will see armed 19-year-old National Guardsmen standing in the airport with rifles and you wonder what they think they are doing. Are they looking for bin Laden? Are they protecting us from harm? Or are they stationed there to get us in the mindset that it might not be so bad to have the military enforcing our laws?

Have we lost our minds?

I hate to remind Feingold that he brought us Ashcroft, but he did and now must do something about it. During the confirmation hearings, I recall Feingold saying that he hoped he could influence Ashcroft as a result of the vote. Well, call him. Do something. Some will say it is not fair to pick on Feingold because Ashcroft represents the Justice Antonin Scalia-imposed president and commander in chief, not the views of our senator.

But if we cannot hold him completely responsible, then he can't forget his vote simply because he voted to oppose the so-called "American Patriotism Act" that gave Ashcroft much of the power that he gleefully exercises.

During the so-called Red Scare period, when Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee were ruining careers, we were told by those in authority that those in government had information that we did not have. That they were men of good will and would not intentionally destroy the careers of innocent people. That we could, for heaven's sake, trust the FBI.

Then we learned about J. Edgar Hoover and how he planted false rumors about Dr. Martin Luther King and anti-war protesters. We learned that Joe McCarthy was reading from blank pages when he held up his famous "list of 57 known Communists in the State Department" and we learned about teachers fired because they opposed the witch hunts.

Well, the head witch hunter is known today as John Ashcroft. Time for our senators and congressmen to speak out. Time to introduce bills to admit the mistake of secret military tribunals. Time to brush off the Martin Niemoller quote, "First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."

While I'm not Muslim nor am I from the Middle East, I suppose in Ashcroft's mind, I'm a threat if I write about his loopy ideas and his effort to rob us of our freedom. Face it folks. We are in trouble.

Ed Garvey is a Madison lawyer who was the Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor in 1998.

Copyright 2001 The Capital Times

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