From the Opinion page in today's Baltimore Sun:
PLENTY OF John Ashcroft's former Senate colleagues had misgivings when George W. Bush nominated him to be attorney general.
They knew him to be more ideological than intellectual, more judgmental than judicious, and altogether more small-minded than what might be hoped for in a candidate for the top domestic Cabinet post.
Yet Mr. Ashcroft has not merely lived up to his colleagues' expectations during his first two years in office, he has wildly exceeded them, as documented in a recent profile by The Sun's Michael Hill.
He is the nation's chief law enforcement officer, but seems intent on bending both the law and the Constitution to his will.
It's far past time to send Herr Ashcroft packing. He revealed much of his true nature when he accused us civil libertarians of trying to "scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty." Ashcroft is lying to himself if he truly believes his own words. There are no phantoms here. Liberty has indeed been lost.
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Link courtesy of Virginia E. Sloan, President of The Constitution Project via the In Defense of Freedom mailing list.