WASHINGTON — In his five-page, handwritten letter of resignation to President Bush, U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft declared that "the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."
Whether that turns out to be true or not, Americans are going to be debating the cost of Ashcroft's efforts in the war on terror for years to come.
To the faithful, Ashcroft was a hero, keeping the nation safe by averting a second terrorist attack on his watch. Along the way, he oversaw a drop in the nation's violent crime rate to a 30-year low and spearheaded an aggressive crackdown on corporate criminals. The longtime National Rifle Assn. member even managed to dramatically increase the number of gun prosecutions.
To his critics, Ashcroft personified how the nation had veered wildly off course, sacrificing fundamental values for a degree of national security that in many ways is illusory and uncertain. Along the way, he alienated civil-liberties groups, as well as conservative thinkers, judges, and -- perhaps to his ultimate detriment -- some of the president's top political aides.
"I think John Ashcroft is one of the most powerful -- if not the most powerful -- and effective attorneys general in the history of this nation," said Viet Dinh, a Georgetown University law professor, who helped draft the Patriot Act as a top Ashcroft aide in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has compared Ashcroft's embrace of those new powers to the Red scares launched by a predecessor in the early 1920s, expressed relief at news of his imminent departure, calling him "one of the most divisive forces in the entire Bush administration."
From the moment Bush nominated him, Ashcroft seemed destined to have a controversial tenure. Even the circumstances of his appointment were bizarre: rescued from near-certain political obscurity after losing a hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Missouri to a dead man.
He endured a grueling four-day confirmation battle in the Senate, where he received the most negative votes ever cast against a nominee for attorney general.
He was scorned as an instrument of the far right, in part because of his devout religious views. Once ensconced on the fifth floor of the Justice Department, he began conducting regular prayer meetings in his office with staff members.
