Up until now, we should've cut John Ashcroft some slack.

The attorney general has done things since Sept. 11 that ought to make Americans uneasy. Stretching the rules
on detaining people who aren't charged with a crime. Backing military tribunals instead of regular trials.
Calling people in for questioning simply because of Middle Eastern connections, no matter how distant.

But you do things in war that you wouldn't do other times.
We'd never forgive Ashcroft if he let someone loose who comes back to kill us.

On Thursday he had to go to Capitol Hill to defend his decisions. Still, he'll get to do most of what he wants.
And for the most part, we should give him a little room.

At least that's what I thought until this thing with the guns.
It turns out that Ashcroft's Justice Department won't let the FBI find out if 1,200 people being held have
bought guns in the United States.  Everyone who buys a gun goes through a federal background check.
Some people - convicted felons, for example - aren't allowed to own guns.

In most cases, the FBI can't use information from the background checks. But the FBI thinks there should be an
exception for some of the people being held as part of the terrorist investigation. The Justice Department still says no.
So, apparently, it's OK to bring people in for the slightest of reasons, hold them as long as you want, and give them
a secret military trial.    But it's not OK to find out whether they bought a gun.

This is one of those situations for which the word "bass-ackwards" was invented.
If you suspect that someone might be a terrorist, wouldn't your first impulse be to find out if he has any weapons?

Not if you're John Ashcroft.

See, when Ashcroft ran for the Senate last year, the National Rifle Association spent more than $300,000
in hard and soft money on his race. He lost. But he remembers.  And so he puts our country in the odd position
of ignoring just about every one of these detainees' rights except the right to own a gun.

This is not an argument against guns or the NRA.
Just a thought that if one freedom is worth saving, the others might be worth saving, too.

Still, give Ashcroft this.
In war and in peace, when you buy him, he stays bought.