One of the things that I will simply never - and I do mean NEVER - forgive George W Bush for is the fact that I now think John Ashcroft was actually a decent human being. Seriously. This is a guy who literally decided that it was his constitutional duty to cover the breasts of the statue of Justice that graces the ornate Great Hall of the Justice department.
I mean, it's hard for me to even comprehend how a presumably heterosexual man - heck, even a man who has zero interest in women - would think that covering up one of the more perfect forms that nature has devised is actually something that the entire department of justice in the last remaining superpower on the planet should be focussed on.
Mind boggling...
Still, what I have learned is that despite this inexplicable revulsion of the sight of a female breast, John Ashcroft has repeatedly shown that - at his base - he was truly an American who understood what this country was all about when the stakes were high.
According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: "Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly."
I know that we're all human (well, most of us anyway - wink, wink). And believe me, I just cannot fathom any heterosexual wanting to cover up the female breast... But here's a guy who when the chips were down, when things were at pretty much the level where you'd think the Goat With A Thousand Young was leading the meeting, seems to be the only one with enough humanity left to raise the obvious point that maybe - just maybe - okaying torture (for whatever fucking reason Cheney came up with) wasn't probably the wisest thing for a presidential administration to be doing.
Add to this the scene with Alberto Gonzalos as Ashcroft was essentially incoherent in the hospital (wrt warantless wiretapping) and I hate to say it but I am beginning to think that I really should just chill out about the whole female breast covering up obsession of his.
Almost... I mean, they are breasts... Female ones...
Yeah, let's hear it for Shub-Niggurath...
Hey, even the Goat with a Thousand Young has a social life.
He meant, "we should not be discussing this *here* -- if the transcript/agenda is leaked, it'll look bad".
About covering up, that makes perfect sense. If you don't see it, you don't think about it as much.
Out of sight, out of mind.