Where's Ashcroft

[Keirsey]

The once ubiquitous U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has been conspicuously absent from the recent spate of terror announcements. Maybe that's because, in the scary times of a close presidential race, he's just a little too scary.

In previous alerts over the years, Ashcroft's hooded eyes and ominous baritone cued America to imagine the worst. His alarmism—and a tendency to call press conferences without checking first with the White House—quickly became a political liability to the Bush administration, as critics on both the right and the left balked at the head prosecutor's McCarthyesque zeal. After all, if the voters are afraid, they might not want to risk change—but if they are terrified, they might opt in their panic for someone who represents new hope.

Thus, Department of Homeland Security head Tom Ridge replaced Ashcroft as the official spokesperson of this recent round of orange alerts. (If not visually less intimidating, he is at least more of a Bush team player.) As recently as the last fear fest in May, Ridge had clashed with his counterpart over just how red that scare really was—Ashcroft trotted out FBI Director Robert Mueller to warn of Al Qaeda plots against America, but Ridge pointedly refused to crank the DHS color chart from "elevated" to "high."

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0431/lee2.php

[emulatorloo]

1. Bush is a moderate compassionate conservative now, they are hiding

the wackos. Rummy Wolfie Asscrack - forget about them!

[billybob537]

2. Asscrack lost an election to a dead guy

Bush* is Texas toast!

[Gman]

3. He's obviously bound and gagged

in some DOJ basement to shut him up.

Its starting to remind me of how the GOP kept Tom Delay, Dick Armey, et al under wraps in the months leading up to Nov 2000.

[muchacho]

4. He's in the Cheny hidey-hole..

with Rummy.

They'll pop out in December.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Ashcroft image clashes with desired RNC speakers image: Guliani, Ahnold,