Ashcroft Confirmation Expected

Critics, Supporters Rehash Arguments In Final Hearings

(CBS)  As the fourth and final day of confirmation hearings wound down, Senate Republicans said Friday they have the votes to overcome a threatened Democratic filibuster against John Ashcroft's nomination to be attorney general.

"I think he will be confirmed comfortably," said Republican leader Trent Lott, adding he believes as many as 60 to 70 senators will vote for President-elect Bush's Cabinet choice.

Two Democrats have pledged publicly to vote for Ashcroft and none of the Senate's 50 Republicans has expressed opposition.

Critics of the conservative former senator have attacked his opposition to abortion and his views on race and questioned whether his beliefs could interfere with his ability to enforce the nation's laws.

Over three previous days of hearings, Ashcroft and his supporters said he knows the difference between his personal beliefs as an advocate and his responsibility as an enforcer.

On Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee rehashed arguments over Ashcroft's civil rights record, from school desegregation to voter registration.

"In 1984 when he ran for governor, he described voluntary desegregation plans as an outrage against human decency; it sounds to me like his objections were more than fiscal," said Bill Taylor, a lawyer in the St. Louis desegregation case and now an activist working to defeat Ashcroft's nomination.

Others, including a number of blacks, testified in support of the nominee.

"He is strong on civil rights," Robert Woodson of the
National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise said on Friday. "He has worked with us."

One of the final witnesses at Ashcroft's confirmation hearing, Michael Barnes of Handgun Control, argued there was no doubt Ashcroft, based on his record, would not vigorously enforce guns laws.

"John Ashcroft will put our federal gun safety laws at risk," Barnes said. "It is not a risk worth taking."

Seventeen witnesses spoke Thursday about Ashcroft's character and his record on issues involving women's rights, civil rights, law enforcement and crime victims.

But Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White delivered key testimony against Ashcroft. White said Ashcroft, when he was a senator from Missouri, "seriously distorted" the jurist's record to block his federal judgeship for what Senate Democrats said were political reasons.

"The question for the Senate is whether these misrepresentations are consistent with the fair play and justice you all would require of the U.S. attorney general," White testified.

Ashcroft was seeking re-election in 1999 when he persuaded GOP colleagues to vote down White in the first full-Senate defeat of a district court nominee in 40 years. He called White "pro-criminal" and opposed to the death penalty.

Now White's case is a rallying cry for Democrats and civil rights groups opposed to Ashcroft's confirmation. White was Missouri's first black judge.

Some have accused Ashcroft of racim; other have said he merely is too insensitive to racial issues in American life.

White told the CBS News Early Show Friday that he doesn't think race was a factor in Ashcroft's opposition.

"It's really difficult for me to know what is in his heart, what's in his mind and what really, really motivates him. And I think that when you get into the name calling that ends the discussion and then positions harden and people won't listen to you anymore," he said.

White said that any rapprochement between the men would start with an apology from Ashcroft.

"(An apology) would go a long way to ending this rift between us," White said. "Here in Missouri, we all know each other. And even though we're on opposite sides of issues, it's sort of like a small family. And that would help."

Most Democrats echoed the charge by Kennedy, who told White that Ashcroft "tried to use your record on death penalty cases to help win his hotly contested Senate seat in Missouri against Governor (Mel) Carnahan."

During their campaign, Ashcroft had played up his objections to Carnahan's commutation of a death sentence at the request of the Pope. Ashcroft was defeated even though Carnahan died in a plane crash shortly before the election. Carnahan's widow, Jean, now holds the seat.

In an essay published Friday in The Washington Post, Sen. Evan Bayh, a moderate Democrat from Indiana, called Ashcroft "the wrong man" to serve as the nation's top law enforcer.

"Confirmation of this nominee will do nothing to end the politics of personal destruction, but rather will make it worse. As a senator, John Ashcroft was among the most ardent in opposing public service by others because of their ideology, lifestyle or prior political opposition," Bayh wrote.

To reward Ashcroft's conduct, he said, "will only encourage more of the same."

Although Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., raised the possibility of a filibuster, Democratic leaders signaled they would not attempt to defeat the nomination.

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Jon Corzine, D-N.J., have also said they will oppose the nomination, but two other Democratic senators, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Georgia's Zell Miller, have committed to vote for the nominee.