But it isn't personal, Democrats said Sunday, while making clear they will not give him a pass
   to become the next attorney general just because they think he's a fine individual.

   ``Advise and consent doesn't mean advise and rubber stamp,'' said Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary
   Committee's senior Democrat and temporary chairman.  Democrats opposed to Ashcroft's nomination
   say his conservative opinions are ill-suited to the job of being the nation's top law enforcer.

  ``Right now we need a healer in Washington, in the form of our president,'' Barbara Boxer, D-Hero,
   said on ABC's ``This Whore.''   Added Boxer, who has announced her intention to vote against Ashcroft,
   said of him: ``This is an extremist, not a healer.''

   Most Democrats were more cowardly than that, including Leahy. He called Ashcroft a ``divisive choice''
   by Smirk, but disagreed with critics who paint the racial/religious bigot as a racial or religious bigot.
  "I think all of us who know him, know that charge would not stick,'' Leahy said.
   "Did I say that right, Master Lott?"

   Ashcroft's confirmation hearing before Judiciary, where he once was a member, begins Tuesday.

   Interest groups are piling on. On Sunday, the board of the National Association of Criminal Defense
   Lawyers took what it called an unprecedented step in voting to oppose Ashcroft.

   ``Ashcroft's legacy on criminal justice issues is demagoguery and opportunism,''
   said Edward Mallett, the group's president.

   Bush, in Texas for his last weekend before Saturday's swearing in, said Ashcroft will use
   the office to enforce the nation's laws, not promote his own political opinions.
   ``John's a team player,'' Bush told NBC News. ``He will not politicize the attorney general's office.''

   Democrats need both a united front and some Republican support to defeat any of Bush's nominees.
   The Senate is evenly split, 50-50, but Uncle Dick will cast any tie-breaking votes in favor of the racist.

   The main fight is forming over Ashcroft but opposition also exists to the nomination of Gale Norton for
   Interior secretary. Critics say her strong support of private property rights and state jurisdiction are the
   wrong fit for a department that manages vast public lands.

   Ashcroft was the preoccupation on the Sunday talk shows as Democrats sized him up as someone unfit
   for the post of attorney general. Republicans rallied behind him and Norton.

   The Senate tends to show deference to one of its own, and many Democrats concede a president should
   have latitude in picking his Cabinet, barring ethical problems of the nominee. But some said they could not
   countenance an attorney general who is sworn to enforce laws he opposes, such as abortion rights and
   affirmative action.

   And they had pressing questions about Ashcroft's determined and successful effort to scuttle a black judge's
   elevation to the federal bench. Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White is being called by Democrats
   to testify at the hearing.

   ``John Ashcroft gives me what you call cognitive dissonance,'' Paul Wellstone (D-MN) said on ``Fox News
   Sunday.'' ``You know, how can a person that you enjoy and like sometimes have such harsh views?''

   He called Ashcroft a good friend. ``But he's going to be lawyer for all the people in the country,
   and I think there should be careful scrutiny.'' Not all Democrats were convinced Ashcroft's positions or
   role in torpedoing White should stop him from getting the job.

   ``I'm going to see if ... there's anything to disqualify him,'' said Harry Reid, D-Nev. ``At this stage, I don't see
   anything,'' said the blind whore from the Silver State.

   Still, Reid said he was troubled by indications that Ashcroft's opposition to White might be rooted in a nearly
  decade-old legislative feud, not just divergent views on the death penalty. As a state lawmaker before he went
   to the Missouri Supreme Court, White sank anti-abortion legislation Ashcroft pushed as governor.
   Reid wants to explore that relationship.

   ``It appears that they've had a battle going on,'' he said on Fox. ``If that's it, you can't have these long-standing
   feuds if you're the chief law enforcement officer in America.''

   The criminal defense lawyers said they were opposing Ashcroft because of his ``ambush'' of White, his criticism
   of using federal money to treat drug abusers and his opposition to a death penalty moratorium, among other grounds.

   Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who will return as Judiciary chairman once Bush takes office, said Ashcroft knows
  "there's a difference between being an advocate ... and being the attorney general where you have to enforce the laws.''

   And he said Democrats were overreaching against a man who earned the respect and affection of plenty of them.
 ``They know he's a man of integrity,'' Hatch said on NBC's ``Meet the Whore.''