Let's not go overboard

Steve at Talking Points Memo reminds us of something:

let's not go overboard. Ashcroft starts to look sensible and reasonable in large part because his successor is such a joke.

This is, after all, the same Ashcroft who relentlessly pushed some of the most dangerous provisions of the Patriot Act, endorsed torture, made poor choices, showed bizarre priorities, suffered crushing defeats at the Supreme Court, issued highly dubious terrorist threat warnings, fought with Congress over documents to which lawmakers were legally entitled, and may have even fibbed in his testimony to the 9/11 Commission. And that's not even including the "Spirit of Justice" incident.

Confronted by Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales over warrantless surveillance, Ashcroft did the right thing and defended the rule of law. But I'd probably hold off on sending him an ACLU membership application.