January 19, 2001

Connecticut Green Party
P.O. Box 231214, Hanover, CT 06123 (860) 822-1270
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CONTACT:
Glenn Cheney (860) 822-1270
Tom Sevigny (860) 693-8344

"Morally and ideologically at odds with the values of our nation"

HARTFORD (January 19) - The leaders of the Connecticut Green Party (CTGP) have expressed serious reservations about the nomination of Senator John Ashcroft for the post of U.S. Attorney General. They said that "Ashcroft's political record is morally and ideologically at odds with the values of our nation."

"If president-select Bush's appointments are an example of compassionate conservatism, then we are in for a divisive four years," said Tom Sevigny, co-chair of the CTGP. "With an evenly divided Senate, such an inflammatory appointment undermines the president-elect's claim to be a uniter, not a divider." The CTGP steering committee noted that fully half of all Americans identified with neither the Republican nor Democratic party and that promises of "bipartisanship" mean nothing to people who do not adhere to the ideology of either party.

The Green Party leaders offered several reasons why Ashcroft's nomination was inappropriate and should be withdrawn. - The president-elect should have recognized that the United States is officially and predominantly pro-choice. Senator Ashcroft is contemptuous of, and hostile to, this majority.

- Senator Ashcroft refuses to acknowledge the emerging consensus that the death penalty is applied in a racist and elitist pattern that cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny, and he has abused the judicial confirmation process to maintain that pattern.

- While he has promised to obey the law without regard to his personal disdain for it, Senator Ashcroft's voting record includes several cases in which he championed various forms of voting rights discrimination, employment discrimination and violations of due process.

- While most Americans, including most Republicans, are at least tolerant of gays, lesbians, and other sexual minorities, Senator Ashcroft is bitterly out of step with a tolerant nation, and he brings with him a long record of evident racial contempt, if not hatred, that makes it impossible for the average American to trust the Senator's commitment to equal justice.

"By choosing a national chief of law enforcement whose ideology reflects only a tiny and extremist subset of the Republican minority, president-elect Bush has begun his presidency by putting the nation on notice that he does not aspire to represent all of us, or even most of us," Sevigny said. "The nomination bodes ill for the Bush administration.

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