Wes Vernon
Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001

That blunt advice was offered Wednesday by Mark R. Levin, president of the Landmark Legal Foundation. Speaking to a group of Washington-area conservatives at the Leadership Institute, Levin called on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to schedule testimony by the families of the victims of the Missouri killer whose case is at the heart of left-wing charges of racism on Ashcroft’s part.

"So when people go out and they say John Ashcroft [as a senator] opposed Ronnie White because he’s black, or when people are saying this is a civil rights issue, I say this is a victim’s rights issue," said the one-time chief of staff to the attorney general in the Reagan administration.

Ashcroft led the opposition to the confirmation of Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White to be a federal judge. Stung by this rejection on the floor of the Senate, President Clinton at the time accused the lawmakers of racial motives.

Never mind that the senator had voted to confirm 26 out of 28 black Clinton court nominees. Or that when he was Missouri governor, he had appointed the first black to the state court of appeals. Or that he had signed the law making Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday.

Ashcroft had opposed the White nominatioin in 1999 because of his lone dissents in some death penalty cases.

The main focus of Ashcroft’s oppostion was the case of killer James Johnson.

Johnson, who by the way is white, was involved in an argument with his wife and daughter in 1991. When he pulled a gun and threatened them, a sheriff’s deputy was called to intervene. Johnson shot the deputy twice in the back, and as the deputy lay on the ground moaning in pain, Johnson walked up to him and killed him with another bullet through the head.

The rampage continued as Johnson drove to the home of the sheriff and shot the sheriff’s wife five times at a Christmas party in front of her family.

Then he went to the home of another sheriff’s deputy, wounded him four times by shooting through the window, and later shot and killed two other deputies near the sheriff’s office before finally being captured.

When Johnson went to trial, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He was convicted and sentenced to die. On appeal to the state Supreme Court, only Judge Ronnie White wanted to overturn the conviction. He argued that Johnson’s attorney was incompetent in handling the killer’s insanity plea. White said that Johnson’s Christmas killing rampage "was certainly something akin to madness."

Sen. Ashcroft, on the other hand, said this was an excuse to give Johnson "another bite at the apple" to go before another jury.

Recounting the case before the Leadership Institute breakfast, Levin expressed the hope that Hatch would invite the victim’s families to testify at Ashcroft’s confirmation and "look these senators in the eye and say, ‘We don’t think Ronnie White was qualified to be promoted to a lifetime federal judgeship.' "

The Landmark president hopes Chairman Hatch also will call on "some of the peace officers who had to take up their brothers’ bodies and had to carry their coffin at the funeral. I hope they invite them to testify about the qualifications [of White]."

The hard left is making as much noise as possible to "make this about race or civil rights," says Levin, "But they’re lying. It’s not about race and civil rights."

This is "an opportunity," in Levin’s view. "Let’s discuss Ronnie White in front of the TV cameras and in front of the public. And let’s make Senator Leahy and Senator Biden, who go home and talk tough on crime, explain why they embrace these left-wing way-out-of-the-mainstream candidates for these federal judgeships."

Conservatives and Republicans have public opinion on their side, according to polls that have been taken again and again showing public support for the death penalty.

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Moreover, the Clinton era may have finally toughened up the conservatives to a full appreciation of the fact that in politics, you play for keeps. Some of them are suggesting that if the left wants to accuse Ashcroft of racism just because Ronnie White is black, then why isn’t Ted Kennedy accused of racism for his opposition to Clarence Thomas’ 1991 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court?

As Levin puts it, "We should not let our best and our brightest die on these political battlefields." Robert Bork, the failed 1987 high court nominee, has become a living symbol of the refusal of Republicans to get tough when it is fully justified.

Ashcroft will likely be the opening battle in this political war. The hard left will be back to brutalize Bush’s nominees for judgeships and other Cabinet posts. Gail Norton, the Colorado woman nominated for secretary of interior, can probably expect a battle from so-called environmentalists. Her supporters are prepared to back her up on claims that the worst polluter is none other than that sacred cow known as the federal government.

As far as Ashcroft is concerned, there are indications that even the more liberal Republicans in the Senate are in his corner. But will that hold up if just one of them starts to cave?

As Margaret Thatcher told the incoming president’s father during the Gulf War, "This is no time to get wobbly!"

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