Et Tu, Feingold?

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Senator Russ Feingold supports confirmation of John Ashcroft as Attorney General

A lot of people were left scratching their heads after Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, supported the confirmation of his rightwing former colleague John Ashcroft as Attorney General. For one thing, progressive groups had chosen the Ashcroft nomination as a major rallying point. And then there was the fact that even Feingold acknowledged Ashcroft's reprehensible record: his aggressive tactics to block gay and black federal appointees, his hostility to civil rights, and his anti-abortion extremism.

Why would Feingold, the progressive, pro-choice, pro-civil-rights, anti-death-penalty Senator, stand up for Ashcroft's confirmation? And what does Feingold's bipartisan gesture say about the Democratic Party as a whole?

Feingold argues that it was important to the legitimacy of the process not to let the Ashcroft nomination become a matter of ideology or partisan politics. He said it was a matter of constitutional principle and longstanding practice in the Senate to confirm nominees who are qualified and not legally or ethically challenged, regardless of their politics. Although, as he put it, "a reasonable person could conclude he couldn't enforce the law," Feingold concluded Ashcroft would uphold his oath to be fair and impartial.

"I believe we have to hold the line and not use ideology alone in making decisions about cabinet appointments," Feingold says. Otherwise, "I fear if we keep going, more and more areas of our government are going to fall into the Great Divide and be engulfed in a culture war."

Liberals could not be confirmed, either, if Republican Senators applied an ideological litmus test. By offering what he calls "an olive branch" to the Republicans, Feingold says he is setting precedent for a progressive administration of the future.

Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, doesn't buy it. "I think he's confusing an olive branch with a fig leaf. He needs to go back to botany class," Frank growls. "This one-sided extension of an olive branch makes no sense. The nomination of Ashcroft was a declaration of war."

As for the idea that Ashcroft will do his duty and uphold the law, Frank points out that Ashcroft will have broad discretion. "The Attorney General has a lot of small decisions to make," says Frank. "Should gay people get asylum? Should a federal sex-crimes register include people who are arrested for consensual sex acts?"

Feingold knows that many of his Democratic constituents were upset with his...