Shame on Ashcroft

In calling his critics traitors, he undermined support for his cause.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?"

- Joseph Welch, special counsel in the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings

That may be the most memorable rebuke delivered against a United States senator in a nationally televised hearing. It was the beginning of the end of public support for Joe McCarthy, the red-baiting senator from Wisconsin whose name is forever associated with a dark period in American civil liberties.

It's too bad no one had that sense of outrage to condemn U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft - a former U.S. senator - at Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on questions of how the Bush administration is conducting investigations into terrorist activities.

To those who have expressed concerns about secretly jailing suspects, eavesdropping on lawyer-client conversations and secret military tribunals, Ashcroft had the audacity to say they are aiding the enemy.

That was contemptible.

Ashcroft is dead wrong, besides. Nothing would give more aid and comfort to the enemies of America's freedoms - such as the freedom to criticize the government - than for the government to succeed in silencing its critics. That has not worked here since the demise of the Alien and Sedition Acts 200 years ago.

What's especially sad about Ashcroft's assertion is that he undermined support he might have had for the administration's expansion of executive powers. There is a case to be made for denying aliens the same constitutional protections that American citizens enjoy; the chief executive has extraordinary powers in time of war. The enemy is elusive, perhaps, but it has bombed our leading financial center and military headquarters and may be capable of striking again.

Whatever acceptance the attorney general may have deserved for his cause, however, he forfeited it with Thursday's attack on those who dare to criticize the administration.

In essence, he said, they are traitors.

To that, it must be said: Sir, have you no shame? At long last, have you no shame?