I disagree. Laws are designed to have a significant amount of play in the joints. Prosecutors are constantly called upon to exercise discretion in deciding whom to investigate, whose phone to tap, which old statute to use against political opponents, etc., etc. That is why we need an ethical Attorney General, one with some sense of right and wrong - an Elliot Richardson or an Archibald Cox, to take two examples. Mr. Cox was never Attorney General, but his career, particularly his role in standing up to the Nixon gang in 1973, exemplifies the sort of character that we need, but do not have, in our Attorney General.

Ashcroft is at least as big a threat to the American way of life as are Tom Delay, et al.