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You are here: Home / Lack of Persective

Lack of Persective

by John Cole|  June 15, 200412:15 pm| 17 Comments

This post is in: Democratic Stupidity

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John Ashcroft is no hero of mine, but the idea that he is the worst Attorney General in history is laughable. Paul, Oliver– two words.

Ramsey Clark.

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Reader Interactions

17Comments

  1. 1.

    Carl

    June 15, 2004 at 12:26 pm

    Hey, at least Clark KNEW when he was breaking the law.

    OK, OK. SECOND worst?

  2. 2.

    Jay G

    June 15, 2004 at 1:34 pm

    At BEST Ashcroft would be third worst, after Clark and Janet “Waco” Reno.

  3. 3.

    JKC

    June 15, 2004 at 1:45 pm

    I’d refer you to the case of Steve Kurtz before getting all warm and fuzzy about Sneering Lord Ashcroft.

    And before you all start going off about some lefty artist getting his due, keep in mind that any of you using milky spore to control Japanese beetles are in posession of Bacillus popillae-Dutky spores… same genus (but different species) as anthrax.

  4. 4.

    HH

    June 15, 2004 at 1:50 pm

    From a letter to the Corner:

    Well, John Mitchell went to jail for things he did in office. He was Nixon’s AG. So forget Reno or Palmer (and, to be candid, jailing bolshie’s never bothered me) isn’t John Mitchell the gold standard of AG malevolence? You are right about liberals not even remembering where they were just yesterday.

  5. 5.

    Terry

    June 15, 2004 at 3:01 pm

    It would appear that David Brock’s comfort cushion has a very, very bad memory, as noted in the comments above.

  6. 6.

    Andrew J. Lazarus

    June 15, 2004 at 7:14 pm

    Clark went nuts after his stint. I think Krugman was referring to performance in office.

  7. 7.

    Gary Farber

    June 15, 2004 at 11:17 pm

    I will happily stipulate that Clark has done a long list of astonishingly wrong-headed things since leaving office.

    But since you’re asserting he was the worst AG ever, I’d be quite interested to see your candidates for, say, the Top Five Worst Things he did as AG. Which most offended you?

    They should be easy to snap off in under thirty seconds, since he was The Worst Attorny-General Ever.

    No ggogling, please; no checking any references. Off the top of your head. (I’m not asking for ten; just five.)

  8. 8.

    er

    June 16, 2004 at 12:21 pm

    Name 5 AGs apart from Ashcroft, Reno, Clark, or Mitchell, Mr Farber. Quick, now. No Googling.

  9. 9.

    Gary Farber

    June 16, 2004 at 4:49 pm

    Sure. Mitchell Palmer, Ed Meese, Elliot Richardson, William Rogers, Barr, Dick Thornburgh, William French Smith, Bobby Kennedy, Griffin Bell, William Saxbe, Richard Kleindiest, Nicholas Katzenbach, Francis Biddle, Robert Jackson, Cesar Rodney, Breckenridge, Edwin Stanton…. That’s about it for off the top of my head at the moment.

    Would you like some details of their careers, off the top of my head?

    Can we play Secretaries of State now?

    I’m fairly well-read on American history.

  10. 10.

    Gary Farber

    June 16, 2004 at 4:51 pm

    Oh, and Tom Clark. (Ramsey’s father.)

  11. 11.

    Gary Farber

    June 16, 2004 at 7:14 pm

    So now John is going to explain, off the top of his head, why Ramsey Clark was The Worst Attorny General Ever, with five — how about three? — supporting reasons, right?

    I’m not being unfair by asking him to, like, explain why he believes this, and why he believed it when he wrote it, without after-the-fact research, am I? I might perfectly well agree with him, after all.

    It’s a very simple question.

  12. 12.

    James Casey

    June 17, 2004 at 2:54 am

    Agree with LSU Student and John Cole – personal insults lose you the argument by default.

  13. 13.

    belle

    June 17, 2004 at 4:57 am

    I feel that being totally unable to back up sweeping claims with evidence of any kind loses you the argument, too. But that’s just me.

  14. 14.

    apostropher

    June 17, 2004 at 5:54 am

    [checks watch] Sure is quiet in here.

  15. 15.

    James Casey

    June 17, 2004 at 6:11 am

    Belle – are you referring to me? If so, I’m actually referring to some comments between Gary’s and mine, which have since been deleted. They were personal insults, which John mentions in the post I linked to.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Hellblazer says:
    June 17, 2004 at 1:01 am

    Gary Farber Kicks Ass

    John Cole and his pack of sycophants get plastered. As Ogged says, read the comments. You’ll enjoy it, I promise….

  2. Hellblazer says:
    June 17, 2004 at 1:05 am

    Gary Farber Kicks Ass

    John Cole and his pack of sycophants get plastered. As Ogged says, read the comments. You’ll enjoy it, I promise….

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