Editor: Where’s this "liberal media" I’m always hearing about?

All the reports I’ve heard about the Ashcroft hearings have been conservatively biased, brushing off opposition as "liberal special interest groups." Well, regular everyday people oppose Ashcroft, and the way he tries to hide his divisive and contemptuous views behind words such as "values" and "Christian faith" is offensive to many people of faith.

I don’t consider Ashcroft a racist for opposing one black man’s appointment to a judgeship. But I do consider him a misogynist and a threat to children.

Ashcroft is not only against abortion, but also against birth control and sex education - such a system serves only to increase the numbers of poor women and children. He thinks women should be forced to give birth to their rapists’ babies - and he would then deny those women assistance if they’d had children out of wedlock!

He also opposes trying to save a woman’s life when potentially fatal complications develop during birth. Ashcroft’s "partial-birth" abortion ban would have forced doctors to save the baby’s life first and consider the mother last. That view is not only anti-women, but also anti-family and anti-Christian.

Ashcroft spent countless hours and dollars fighting desegregation of Missouri schools, seeking to prevent rich, privileged children from having to go to school with poor ones.

Ashcroft’s views make him a threat to decent people of all faiths and beliefs, not just "liberal special interest groups." And his selection shows the true divisiveness of the coming Bush administration.