Jeremiah Smith: “I consider it an honor and privilege to stand here today in support of the nomination of John Ashcroft to be Attorney…”

“I consider it an honor and privilege to stand here today in support of the nomination of John Ashcroft to be Attorney General of the United States. Contrary to some of the rhetoric we have been hearing from the other side, everybody in this institution knows he is one of the finest people who ever served here. He is a man of great religious faith, a moral man. Yet as we listen to this debate, if it wasn't for the fact that it was so personally destructive and so vindictive, it would be humorous. We have a man who served 6 years in the Senate, served two terms as Governor, two terms as attorney general of the State of Missouri. Yet to hear the debate, he is anti-child, anti-woman, anti-black, anti-gay, anti-Catholic. What else can possibly be said? One thing we can certainly be assured of--the left knows how to play politics. They do it well, and I commend them for it. Unfortunately, though, sometimes in politics, one destroys unfairly the reputations of people who don't deserve it. That is what offends me the most. I will not use the term 'anger,' but it does offend me that this kind of personal destruction has to be used.”