Here are two columnists who were impressed by the performance of North Carolina Senator John Edwards' intelligent and focused questioning of Ashcroft at the recent hearings on tribunals. Many of you saw this on C-Span, but I wanted to pass along the fact that Edwards is getting high marks outside DU as well.

Here's Walter Shapiro from USA Today:
...That held until John Edwards, the final questioner and a noted trial lawyer before his election to the Senate in 1998, proved how much a practiced courtroom questioner could accomplish in just 5 minutes. The North Carolina Democrat pressed Ashcroft on whether the low threshold of proof in the executive order setting up the military tribunals ("a preponderance of evidence") meant that an accused terrorist could be convicted even if there were a 49% chance of his innocence. Ashcroft's vague answer: "That an issue still to be determined, and beyond my power to speculate on."

Edwards followed up by asking whether the death penalty could be imposed by a divided 2-to-1 verdict. Faced with this onslaught, all the attorney general could do was concede that "two out of three is two-thirds."
Like a prizefighter pummeled in the final round, Ashcroft was mercifully saved by the bell.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/e98/shapiro/588.htm

http://www.bartcop.com/1212lyons.htm