Ashcroft's Inner Sanctum
The more I read about Attorney General John Ashcroft, the less I like it:
Since taking the reins of the Justice Department in February 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft has relied heavily on a cadre of close advisers to monitor the department's wide-ranging activities and to flag issues that need his consideration.Unlike other attorneys general who held daily or weekly meetings with the heads of DOJ units and agencies, Ashcroft only rarely sits down face to face with members of the department's senior management. Instead, most matters coming to his attention are filtered through longtime Chief of Staff David Ayres and Deputy Chief of Staff David Israelite -- known at Main Justice simply as "the Davids."
As a result, the attorney general's immediate staff wields unusual influence over policy decisions.
And the members of the "immediate staff," like the Attorney General, are -- in my opinion -- motivated more by their fundamentalist Christian beliefs than by any concerns about the Bill of Rights or even the Constitution as a whole. This worries me:
At the top, serving as Ashcroft's closest advisers and his political bodyguards, are Ayres and Israelite.Ayres came on as campaign manager of Ashcroft's successful Senate bid in 1994 and has since served as Ashcroft's chief of staff. Ayres ran the campaign and later Ashcroft's Senate office while earning his business degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
The 40-year-old father of four is known for being aggressive and intensely loyal to Ashcroft. He also shares his boss's deep religious conviction. In terms of influence with Ashcroft, no one in the Justice Department comes close to Ayres.
Israelite, a University of Missouri Law School grad and former litigation associate in the Kansas City office of St. Louis-based Bryan Cave, spent two years as a legislative aide to Missouri's other Republican senator, Christopher "Kit" Bond. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Israelite served as director of political and governmental affairs for the Republican National Committee.
(Emphasis added.) Is Ashcroft presiding over the Department of Justice, or the religious right's version of the Taliban? I suggest the latter. Read the whole article here from Law.com.