Ashcroft talks about past, future

John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft

It's been more than 15 years since John Ashcroft held an elected office - and 11 since he last held a public office.

After he left the U.S. attorney general's post in February 2005, Ashcroft formed a Washington, D.C.-based legal and consulting firm that continues to operate today.

Ashcroft, now 73, got his start in Missouri politics with an unsuccessful run for the 7th District congressional seat in 1972, when he lost the primary election to Gene Taylor, who ended up serving 16 years in Congress.

New Gov. Christopher "Kit" Bond named Ashcroft as state auditor in 1973 to finish the final two years of the term Bond vacated to become governor.

Ashcroft lost his bid for a full, four-year term as auditor in 1974 to Democrat George Lehr, but then-Attorney General John Danforth hired Ashcroft as an assistant attorney general. In 1976, Ashcroft was elected to the top spot as Danforth won the U.S. Senate seat.

Ashcroft served two terms as Missouri attorney general, followed by two terms as Missouri's governor.

After leaving the governor's office in January 1993, he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and won, again succeeding Danforth.

In 2000, he ran for re-election but lost to Gov. Mel Carnahan, who had died in a plane crash three weeks before the election.

Gov. Roger Wilson appointed Jean Carnahan to serve in place of her late husband - and then Republican Jim Talent beat her in the 2002 election for the final four years of that term.

Meanwhile, incoming President George W. Bush chose Ashcroft in 2001 to be the U.S. Attorney General - a post he held during Bush's first term.

Of all those jobs, the News Tribune asked Ashcroft last week, did one stand out above the others?

"I think the challenges associated with keeping America safe, or participating in that effort after 9/11, make (U.S. Attorney General) the most memorable of my jobs," he said. "But, the opportunity to be a governor is perhaps the most satisfying - because you don't just deal with part of the culture, the law enforcement community or the like, you deal with the entire community.

"And very frankly, being governor was so much more pleasing than being (U.S.) senator, because the people of Missouri - when the governor calls and asks them to help do things in behalf of the state - overwhelmingly respond to get good things done."

Ashcroft was also asked if it is difficult to watch somebody else doing the job you just had?

"I think every job should be undertaken with the utmost respect," he said. "And the respect should go to the values that we have as a culture - particularly the law enforcement jobs need to be undertaken with a sense that it's not partisan and it's not political, but it understands the relationship between the rule of law and liberty itself."

As Ashcroft was being introduced Tuesday as the featured speaker for a Boy Scouts fundraising breakfast in Jefferson City, one of the accomplishments listed for his eight years as governor was keeping state government's AAA bond rating with the three national ratings services.

AAA is the best rating a government or a business can get, and it means lower costs for selling bonds or borrowing money.

Keeping that top rating is a claim current Gov. Jay Nixon often makes about his administration's management of the state budget - and it's a claim that goes back at least as far as the Warren Hearnes administration in the mid- to late 1960s.

Ashcroft explained, "I think there's a moral issue in our federal government spending money, which it does not have and which it cannot anticipate having during our lifetimes. And the idea of taking from the next generation so we can consume now is immoral.

"Virtually none of us would think about bankrupting our own grandchildren, but as a culture, we're doing that."

However, Missouri's government "has safeguards against that happening," Ashcroft added, "and I'm pleased that we have been able to maintain those safeguards and respect them so that, at least as far as the state of Missouri is concerned, we are not teaching by our example some kind of irresponsibility."

Ashcroft has announced no future political plans.

However, his son, Jay, is one of several people expected to file next week as a candidate for secretary of state.

What kind of advice does John Ashcroft have for those thinking about a political career?

"If you're willing to sacrifice and to dedicate yourself to values, and you want to achieve noble goals and help lead people to achieve those goals, go into politics," he said. "We need - desperately need - people of high integrity and the kind of discipline and character that (Scouting) is designed to reinforce."

During his keynote speech at the breakfast, Ashcroft noted many politicians take credit for work actually done by their staff or others around them.

Politicians, he said, should be focused on work that sees "to it that liberty is being safeguarded in the absence of politics, but in the line of justice, in ways that would auger well for the future of America."