The reason liberals hate retiring Attorney General John Ashcroft is pretty simple, although “hate” is probably too mild a word for the outright loathing and utter contempt that the Left holds for the man.  Their reason is simple: for the first time in several years, we have an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution as a revered document that should be applied to actual citizens, not a convenient, loophole-ridden artifact that can be torn, twisted, and pasted into new shapes so that it will apply to everyone who has ever thought even briefly about America.
 
Shortly after resigning in early November, Ashcroft delivered a speech blasting federal judges for jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush’s obligations under international treaty.  “The danger I see here,” Ashcroft noted, “is that intrusive political oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war.”  Rational human beings at this point go, “no kidding!”  But, for the Left, never a particularly rational bunch to begin with, Ashcroft’s comments were obscene, a Machiavellian or Orwellian effort to allow an intrusive federal government to trump all of our rights..  The inspiration for Ashcroft’s complain was the decision of U.S. District Judge James Robertson’s halting of the government’s military trial of an al Qaeda member being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Ashcroft, however, insists that rulings like Robertson’s create “expansive private rights in treaties where they never existed.”  The Attorney General is completely correct.  Robertson created constitutional rights for non-citizens and expanded a treaty – he was a one-man legislature and president rather than a judge.

As one would expect, the American Civil Liberties Union, continuing in its quest to create constitutional rights for every person, whether they’re American citizens or not, went ballistic.  Anthony Romano, the ACLU’s executive director, complained, “The nation’s top law enforcement officer… expressed his clear disdain for the rule of law.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Ashcroft believes in the rule of law, including the simple and unmistakable fact that the law does not apply to non-citizens, least of all terrorists who seek to destroy America.

This concept, however, is incomprehensible to the Left.  To suggest that the Constitution should only apply to bona fide American citizens is the craziest thing they’ve ever heard, even if it is the one true interpretation of the document they claim to revere.  To allow constitutional rights to apply to the terrorists that seek to destroy the way of life it creates undermines the document.

Unfortunately, however, Robertson isn’t alone in his decision to revise the meaning of the Constitution and have it apply to all citizens of the world.  The Supreme Court even recently upheld such a determination, insisting that the Bush administration could not indefinitely hold people labeled as military combatants without allowing them the ability to challenge their status.  This undermines the war on terror in several ways, the least of which being that America must continue to play by the strictest of rules while the other side gets to openly, flagrantly, and defiantly cheat.  Several Guantanamo Bay combatants released as a result of the Supreme Court’s technicality immediately returned to Afghanistan and began fighting anew.  This time when our soldiers were faced with the choice of capturing or killing these combatants, they simply chose the latter option – the one they should have chosen all along.

The Left hates Ashcroft because he applies the Constitution through a narrow interpretation, not the broad, “it-applies-to-everyone-with-a-pulse mentality” that has dominated the liberal mindset for decades.  Only if interpreted in the ACLU’s broad way does Ashcroft’s prized USA PATRIOT Act become Orwellian.  No one’s rights are being infringed on when the Constitution is applied equitably to every citizen.  The Left despises Ashcroft because he takes and applies the Constitution only to the people that the Constitution says it applies to.  Revolutionary, isn’t it?  Ashcroft’s interpretation attempts to tell the world something even liberals do not seem to understand: if you want to be treated like American citizens then you need to become American citizens.   

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