John Ashcroft Justice Department Established: 1870 2003 Budget: $18.3 billion Full-time Employees: 106,000 Ashcroft's Salary: $171,900 Web Site: www.usdoj.gov Overall Grade: A- Back To Overview And Other Cabinet Grades

National Journal
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Friday, Jan. 24, 2003

On Sept. 11, 2001, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft found, as he puts it, his "calling." Since then, he has focused single-mindedly on preventing future terrorist attacks and has launched what he terms "a wartime reorganization and mobilization" of his department. That mobilization has redefined the mission of the Justice Department and, arguably, the relationship between the government and its citizenry. While undeniably controversial, Ashcroft, 60, has been extraordinarily effective at advocating, crafting and implementing his and the president's battle plans on the legal front in the war on terrorism -- an accomplishment that has left loyalists and detractors alike in awe. For example, at Ashcroft's command in the wake of Sept. 11, government agents rounded up thousands of foreigners suspected of having ties to terrorists and held them for long periods without public charges. "These changes at the Justice Department have come down as if they were bolts from Olympus," said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, a vociferous Ashcroft critic. "John Ashcroft truly eclipses any modern attorney general in terms of the changes he's brought about."

Such an outsized judgment of Ashcroft would have been almost unthinkable before Sept. 11. Having lost his Senate re-election bid to a dead man, and having then suffered through the most contentious confirmation battle of any Bush Cabinet member, Ashcroft was widely thought to be a short-timer whose main purpose was to keep the Religious Right in President Bush's corner. When Ashcroft became attorney general, he stated three goals: promote equal opportunity through, for example, what Bush calls "affirmative access," reduce gun violence and reduce illegal drug use-priorities set for him by Bush's presidential campaign. Ashcroft served his first six months in relative obscurity.

Soon after Sept. 11, Bush's marching orders for the attorney general -- that he prevent a recurrence of that national nightmare -- radically transformed Ashcroft's role in the administration and his view of his job. Trying to prevent terrorism now occupies 90 percent of Ashcroft's time. Making the case for the attorney general's effectiveness, both Ashcroft aides and the White House point to the absence of another attack. Ashcroft himself points to "the overwhelming majority of court decisions" that represent "a clear ratification" of his department's aggressive anti-terror tactics.

"I think the same things that people admire about this president are things that the attorney general shares: clear leadership, a willingness to stand up and express what he believes and follow through with it. He doesn't waver and is straight with the American people," said David Israelite, Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff. "A large part of his success has been based on those qualities."

In taking a very public role in administration actions that alarm civil libertarians, Ashcroft has successfully played bad cop to Bush's good cop, thus deflecting criticism away from the president. And even as lawmakers grumbled about Ashcroft's style and demands, Congress passed his USA PATRIOT Act, giving his department unprecedented surveillance powers. All is not well within his department, however. Many career officials say that morale is low, and several top-notch career lawyers have left. Ashcroft has announced plans to reorganize the Justice Department, the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. At best, those reforms are works in progress. And the Department of Homeland Security will soon take INS off Ashcroft's hands.

In Washington, Ashcroft has become the unapologetic schoolyard bully. That style has earned him a long list of victories -- legislative and legal -- and an equally long list of enemies. Still, Ashcroft's effectiveness is unquestioned, even at the American Civil Liberties Union. "He's had tremendous influence," said Laura Murphy, who heads the ACLU's Washington office. "He's been given broad latitude to impose some far-reaching and radical changes in the law." While Ashcroft would not win a Cabinet congeniality contest, the magnitude of the changes he has ushered in certainly places him near the top of his class.

Inside Influence Grade: A
At 8:30 a.m. on most weekdays, Ashcroft rolls down Pennsylvania Avenue in his armored car to the White House and, joined by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, briefs the president on the latest terror threats. Making the most of his access to the president, Ashcroft has had a significant hand in directing the domestic war on terrorism. The day after Sept. 11, when Ashcroft and Mueller were updating Bush, the conversation turned to how to hunt down those responsible for the attacks. Ashcroft stopped. "That's not our focus. That's not our priority," he declared. "We must be focused on preventing the next terrorist attack."

Bush and the more formal Ashcroft are not natural soul mates; theirs is a businesslike relationship built on mutual respect. Ashcroft's "views have prevailed oftentimes with the Bush administration," said the ACLU's Murphy. "I do see strong collaboration between Bush political appointees and Ashcroft, so in the end there is a unified front."

Ashcroft's top policy aide, Viet Dinh, described the department's policy relationship with the White House as one in which Justice writes and the White House edits. In drafting the PATRIOT Act, Ashcroft vetted every staff recommendation and personally sold the package to the president at Camp David during the weekend after Sept. 11. On judicial nominations, Ashcroft's staff plays a significant behind-the-scenes role in interviews and final decisions on nominees, according to White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales.

But the Ashcroft-White House relationship doesn't always look like synchronized swimming. On June 10, 2002, Ashcroft beamed in from Moscow with a jolting announcement that an alleged would-be "dirty bomb" terrorist had just been captured. The White House quickly put out a calmer message. Some observers say the White House has reined in Ashcroft from his earlier press-conference-a-week pace, which has slowed. But, Ashcroft said, "we're still guided by what we think is important to share with the American people. When there's a need to share something, we do." Gonzales remarked, "Within every administration, we would always hope we would have perfect coordination and communication. Sometimes that doesn't happen." Though, he added, "It's a good, healthy relationship."

Despite his occasional misstep, Ashcroft has forged an influential, semi-autonomous role in Washington. The view from within the White House is telling: "There's no way for the president to be successful unless we have a strong Department of Justice and attorney general. To the extent people view the president as being successful," Gonzales said, "I would say that a part of that is due to the work of the attorney general."

Hill Clout Grade: B
On Capitol Hill, Ashcroft's popularity is far lower than his effectiveness. The attorney general's my-way negotiating style has predictably rubbed many lawmakers the wrong way. He answers committee chairmen on his own timetable, ignoring their deadlines. He offers non-answers to pointed questions at oversight hearings. When possible, the former senator bypasses Congress by issuing administrative decrees. Lawmakers gripe, but they still pass his bills and have yet to throw up any true roadblocks to his administrative orders, no matter how sweeping.

"Sometimes we work with them forcefully to get what we think is in the interest of the country, and some members will not find that to their liking," said David Ayres, Ashcroft's chief of staff. "But that's the nature of a democracy." Ashcroft spends about three full days a month on Capitol Hill.

Although Congress imposed sunset provisions on portions of the landmark PATRIOT Act, the final version was largely -- 90 percent, Dinh estimates -- what the administration wanted. Of course, Ashcroft wasn't solely responsible for that victory. In fact, he had planned to be the administration's deal-cutter on Capitol Hill, but the White House informed him that the White House Counsel's Office would make those calls. Still, Ashcroft held his share of meetings with senators and applied considerable pressure -- warning lawmakers that blood would be on their hands if terrorists struck before the bill passed.

Members voice concerns about Ashcroft's terror-prevention initiatives, but they don't follow through with much except letters. House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., said he was "deeply concerned" about the attorney general's new FBI guidelines, which broadened its snooping powers, and he scheduled a hearing. Later, the chairman called the hearing off and never rescheduled. Sensenbrenner sent Ashcroft a list of 50 questions regarding implementation of the PATRIOT Act and a deadline for answering. Ashcroft missed the deadline, and Sensenbrenner threatened a subpoena. When the attorney general finally responded, more than a month later, he sent most of his answers to the House Intelligence Committee, not to Judiciary. Yet, Sensenbrenner said he was "satisfied." The only real pushback has been then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey's elimination of Operation TIPS, which would have enlisted citizens to tip off the FBI about suspected terrorists.

Ashcroft "doesn't have a tin ear with Capitol Hill," said Todd Gaziano, a legal analyst for the Heritage Foundation. "He's not nonresponsive. That's the worst sin of a Cabinet secretary. (Ashcroft) may create friction, but his team is very effective," Gaziano added. However, one Senate Democratic aide observed, "Oversight of the Ashcroft Justice Department has been an ordeal. The extreme reluctance to inform Congress about how the new laws are being used makes it difficult to evaluate the department's performance."

The Bush administration hasn't always gotten its way on judicial nominations, but those nominations are mainly the prerogative of the White House legal and political teams, not the attorney general.

Political Imperatives Grade: A
Controversial from the start because of his very conservative congressional record, Ashcroft could have become a political liability. But after Sept. 11, he became the administration's unflinching advocate of arrest-first-and-ask-questions-later crime prevention, which fit a shaken nation's mood.

Ashcroft has played up his tough-on-terror role, with regular announcements of the latest terrorist cells his department has cracked. Mueller's recent announcement that the FBI had thwarted nearly 100 post-Sept. 11 attacks boosted the public perception of prevention. Although Ashcroft has commanded less airtime since he announced the arrest of Jose Padilla, the accused would-be dirty-bomber, the attorney general has calibrated his public profile to make the president look good.

Routinely, Ashcroft has positioned himself so that he, not Bush, has taken the heat for unpopular administration decisions. Ashcroft announced the administration's alien-registration initiative; Bush visited a mosque. The lightning-rod strategy has worked. When the ACLU ran ads blasting the administration's tactics in the domestic war on terror, their target was Ashcroft.

Ashcroft has also helped to enhance executive authority, which Bush believes has eroded over the years. Ashcroft has argued -- with considerable success thus far -- that any U.S. citizen the president declares to be an "enemy combatant" should not have the legal safeguards ordinarily guaranteed to citizens. He has limited public access to information by stiffening reviews of Freedom of Information Act requests. He has also launched an anti-leak task force, which recently prosecuted a Drug Enforcement Administration analyst for leaking information to a British newspaper.

A devout Pentecostal Christian, Ashcroft was appointed partly to appease the Religious Right. Ironically, that constituency has been among the most critical of him since Sept. 11 because of his embrace of "Big Government." Still, Ashcroft's promotion of conservative judicial nominees, his broadened interpretation of the Second Amendment right to bear arms and his aggressive advocacy of faith-based social programs have helped to mollify his critics on the right.

Ashcroft's aggressive law enforcement policy has also made some key minority groups nervous. American Muslim organizations, which endorsed Bush in 2000, clamor for Ashcroft's resignation. They're unhappy with Justice's crackdown on Muslim charities and the FBI's questioning of Arab immigrants. But the groups' leaders continue to meet with Bush and to praise his statements defending Islam. Likewise, mounting arrests of illegal immigrants have angered many Hispanic groups, but their anger is mostly directed toward Ashcroft. Bush still gets high ratings from Hispanics.

Running The Department Grade: C
On Sept. 10, 2001, Ashcroft refused to endorse the FBI's request for $58 million in counter-terrorism funding and $64 million in state and local counter-terrorism grants. Nevertheless, Ashcroft's post-Sept. 11 decision to reorganize the Justice Department and the FBI to focus on the prevention of terrorism was bold. He's clearly molding the department in his image. But, by many accounts, morale among staff lawyers is low.

Ashcroft runs his department much like a Senate office. He entrusts a small circle of aides with enormous responsibility. He has been very involved in vetting presidential appointments to key posts within his realm. "They've asked for our opinion. And almost without exception, we've come up with candidates that (they) have felt good about," said Deputy Chief of Staff David Israelite. Ashcroft worked hard to persuade the White House to pick FBI Director Mueller, whom even Democrats hailed as a strong selection.

Bush's picks, such as Dinh, are now gung-ho members of Ashcroft's tight little team. But the picture outside that inner circle is less rosy. Seasoned lawyers, some with experience dating back to Richard Nixon's era, have left Justice in frustration. "Morale is worse, in the sense that there's a pervasive feeling among many career people that they have been shut out of important decisions and their advice and experience has not been valued," said one staff lawyer. A number of complaints come from the Civil Rights Division, where career lawyers are said to be marginalized and dismissed by politically connected younger lawyers.

Ashcroft says he has relied on many career lawyers in the Criminal Division to help in his crusade against terrorism, and on career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division to investigate voting-discrimination charges in Florida. He pointed to the department's track record with Supreme Court cases and on terrorism: "When you have that kind of success in the department ... that's what builds real professionalism, success, public service. That builds morale, and morale is high."

Yet some of his underlings are upset that Ashcroft has overturned decisions by U.S. attorneys for seemingly political reasons. The attorney general has ordered prosecutors to seek the death penalty in at least a dozen cases in which they had recommended a lesser sentence. "That would be unheard-of under (Attorney General Janet) Reno," said one insider. There is also grousing that political appointees are being slotted into jobs traditionally reserved for career staffers. The new assistant attorney general for administration, for example, is the former president of a small Christian school in Florida. And Ashcroft has decided to personally oversee the formerly apolitical Attorney General's Honors program. But these moves argue both for and against the attorney general's effectiveness as a manager.

Ashcroft has identified the FBI and the INS as badly in need of revitalization. The INS is set to become the Department of Homeland Security's headache. And the jury is still out on the tonic Ashcroft has prescribed for the FBI. Under Ashcroft's direction, Mueller released an FBI reorganization plan in May that shifted resources slightly toward terrorism-prevention-upping its portion of the budget from 18 percent to 22 percent. Top FBI officials still fret that field offices are slow to change their ways. Mueller recently fired off a memo blasting "bureaucratic intransigence."

Some local police departments report no improvement in the FBI's coordination efforts. Baltimore Police Commissioner Edward Norris told Congress, "We're in charge of protecting our cities, and right now, we're not getting any information to do so." Mueller countered that, on the whole, the department's joint terrorism task forces are "working exceptionally."

Perhaps predictably, the most persistent criticism of Ashcroft's management comes from within. "Ashcroft knows that he will never be loved within the Justice Department," Turley said, likening the situation to working among a thousand ex-wives. "But he also knows that it doesn't matter. He doesn't have to be loved.

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