The Bush Administration's U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's Interview with the Southern

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Southern Partisan: Senator, our subscribers followed the rise and fall of the McCain tobacco bill very closely. The legislation was quite shocking in that it was even proposed, then so many Northern Republicans jumped on-board with it. For those of our subscribers who don't know anything about the tobacco legislation, what exactly happened there?
Senator Ashcroft: The bill turned into a massive taxing and spending bill. It was a way to extend government substantially under the guise of a program to curtail smoking among teenagers. However, it didn't do anything to place any responsibility on teenagers. The bill would have increased taxes, in my judgment, by a minimum of $868 billion, and it would have created, according to the bill itself, about 17 new boards, commissions and agencies. I was the only person to stand up and vote against that bill in the Commerce Committee. (I guess so many people thought that it was a lead pipe cinch, that the American people would join with the President and his rhetoric rather than look at the reality of the bill.) But, when we began to expose the nature and extent of governmental extension in the bill, the first thing the proponents of the bill did was to take some of the labeling out of the bill so that the new boards and commissions would have a function. They were de-labeled and tucked into existing Departments so that the extension of government became a stealth extension.
This bill was going to be rushed through prior to the Memorial Day recess after an hour of debate. That's when I decided I would have extended debate! I don't know how much you remember, but earlier in the Memorial Day week, I spent four hours debating the bill without yielding the floor and signaled my willingness to do so for an extended period of time. When they realized they were not going to be able to carry this through at the high velocity they wanted (you know, velocity is the enemy of reason) they fell back.
Tucked into this bill were just incredible things, like the $350 million a year to be spent subsidizing overseas studies about the cost of smoking in other cultures. I mean, $350 million a year! That averages $7 million a state. This was flying under a masthead of teen smoking, but it turned out to be everything from big government to internationalism, all financed under a tax on cigarette companies. But it wasn't a tax on the cigarette companies at all. 59.4% of the taxes would have been paid by people earning less than $30,000 a year. So what you'd have is a massive tax for an extensive extension of government, and when the American people found out what it was, my colleagues decided that they could afford to join me in opposing it.


Southern Partisan: So many of us remember Ronald Reagan and his campaign against big government, but we can't assume that every Republican is against a more powerful Washington. Still, I'm surprised that so many Republicans fell for this one.
Senator Ashcroft: Well, you know, I'll have to tell you, when the President lines up on something, when he's the power behind something, so many of our guys run to the pole, lower the flag and basically do what he thinks. Frankly, we need to be looking at the substance of things to see if there is something there worth fighting for. If there is, then we ought to take the President on.

Southern Partisan: Another issue to do with the President is this idea of an International Criminal Court. You've again been one of the few that has been willing to stand up against that.
Senator Ashcroft: It's an outrage! It has the potential of subjecting American citizens, (at least for their actions abroad and maybe for their actions at home) to vague criminal charges that would spring from so-called "crimes against humanity." Some of the things they're listing as crimes against humanity are "enforced pregnancies." There are lots of people who wonder if the culture would decide not to make abortion available, would that mean that they were "enforcing a pregnancy"? For heaven's sake, that would make withholding of an abortion a crime against humanity when many Americans believe that providing an abortion is a crime against humanity. This is a part of this administration's effort at international government, and in order to govern internationally, they have to sacrifice sovereignty at every turn.
You mentioned Ronald Reagan. Let me just run something by you. Ronald Reagan had a profound impact in terms of the way the world operates. But it wasn't because he would sacrifice sovereignty. Ronald Reagan did not see himself as a governor of the world, he saw himself as a leader of the world. Instead of sacrificing to some coalition or committee bits of U.S. sovereignty as a way of influencing the course of world events, he would strengthen the position of the United States and lead the world to his point of view. That's a profound difference.

Southern Partisan: On the local and national front, we have another effort at twisting meanings and twisting history. Its this idea of national history standards...
Senator Ashcroft: Revisionism is a threat to the respect that Americans have for their freedoms and liberty that was at the core of those who founded this country, and when we see George Washington, the founder of our country, called a racist, that is just total revisionist nonsense, a diatribe against the values of America. Have you read Thomas West's book Vindicating the Founders?

Southern Partisan: I've met Professor West, and I read one of his earlier books, but not that one.
Senator Ashcroft: I wish I had another copy: I'd send it to you. I gave it away to a newspaper editor. West virtually disassembles all of these malicious attacks the revisionists have brought against our founders. Your magazine also helps set the record straight. You've got a heritage of doing that, of defending Southern patriots like Lee, Jackson and Davis. Traditionalists must do more. I've got to do more. We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda.

Southern Partisan: A young lady in North Carolina was recently sent home from school because she had a Confederate flag on her knapsack. What do you think about those kinds of incidents?
Senator Ashcroft: Well, you know, I was down in Texas the other day, and someone asked, "Where was Missouri in the Civil War?" I said, "Frankly, it was in Texas." After Fort Sumter, the legislature seceded, and they were run out when the federal troops came in and they set up a government in exile down in Texas.
The right of individuals to respect our history is a right that the politically correct crowd wants to eliminate, and this is just not acceptable. Take those history standards: the standards make no mention of Lee's military genius! I guess there's too much space devoted to Madonna.