One Thumb Up For Ashcroft

While I share Ebert's distaste for Attorney General Ashcroft's Jesus-freakin', and add in the familiar objections to the AG's wars on bongs, personal privacy, and so on, one recent act brings out my inner Siskel (never Roeper though, never!): Out here in the Golden State (where he has otherwise been occupied with gross violations of state's rights), Ashcroft is fighting police use of a federal database of criminal records (intended only for gun dealers to make background checks of gun buyers) to hunt lawbreakers. The stance has brought plenty of liberal law-and-order sniping about how gun ownership is the only area where Ashcroft seems interested in constitutional rights. Still, in this one case I have to say Let the Mighty Eagle Soar!