Senior Democrat Seeks Probe of Ashcroft's 2003 Tour

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Senior Democrat Seeks Probe of Ashcroft's 2003 Tour Promoting Patriot Act
A leading House Democrat asked the Justice Department's watchdog Tuesday to investigate Attorney General John Ashcroft's trips last year to promote the anti-terror Patriot Act. Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, contends a pair of speaking tours Ashcroft took broke laws barring publicity campaigns and grassroots lobbying by executive branch officials, unless authorized by Congress. Conyers requested the investigation in a letter to Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general. A spokesman for Fine said no decision has been made on the request. Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the trips were fully vetted for legal issues by agency lawyers and were meant to correct what he said were false impressions given to the public by Patriot Act opponents.

"It wasn't just misleading the public. It was having a negative law enforcement impact because it was hurting morale," Corallo said.
Conyers also released a review by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, estimating the cost of Ashcroft's Patriot Act trips at more than $208,000, not counting expenditures by U.S. attorney's offices around the country in connection with the initiative.

The Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress a few weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, gave federal law enforcement expanded powers of surveillance and prosecution against suspected terrorists, their helpers and fund-raisers. President Bush, Ashcroft and other top law enforcement officials have called the law critical in preventing future attacks. Civil liberties groups, many Democrats and some Republicans say the law goes too far in threatening citizens' constitutional and privacy rights.

The GAO's cost estimates covered two Ashcroft tours in 2003: an initial series of trips between Aug. 19 and Sept. 9; and a second batch of trips, dubbed "Life and Liberty," from Sept. 18 to Sept. 25. Each tour visited 16 cities. Along with the tours, the Justice Department put up a "Life and Liberty" Web site devoted to the Patriot Act's purported successes against terrorism.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB2Q11N4ZD.html

[UpInArms]

1. more of the "if things don't go your way" just break the

law - like DeLay said "I am the Federal Government".

These jerks just don't get it.

[54anickel]

2. I'm afraid these jerks DO get it. They do it over and over again, simply

because they can, or at least could. They had the nation scared shitless and played on that fear. They wrapped themselves up in the flag and squelched any criticism with shouts of "anti-patriotic". And the media went right along with it all.

[struggle4progress]

3. kick for crooks on tour

:kick: