Mrs. Ashcroft Sez It All

Remember that whole Godfather-like scene in which Abu Gonzales and Andrew Card went to "visit" Attorney General John Ashcroft while he was in the hospital following gall-bladder surgery? And how those two Bush lackeys tried to get the heavily sedated AG to sign off on the president's torture policies? Well, here's another fascinating angle on the whole story, this time we hear how Mrs. Ashcroft reacted to her husband's treatment:

“Ashcroft, who looked like he was near death, sort of puffed up his chest,” Goldsmith recalls. “All of a sudden, energy and color came into his face, and he said that he didn’t appreciate them coming to visit him under those circumstances, that he had concerns about the matter they were asking about and that, in any event, he wasn’t the attorney general at the moment; Jim Comey was. He actually gave a two-minute speech, and I was sure at the end of it he was going to die. It was the most amazing scene I’ve ever witnessed.”




After a bit of silence, ... Gonzales thanked Ashcroft, and he and Card walked out of the room.




“At that moment,” Goldsmith recalled, “Mrs. Ashcroft, who obviously couldn’t believe what she saw happening to her sick husband, looked at Gonzales and Card as they walked out of the room and stuck her tongue out at them. She had no idea what we were discussing, but this sweet-looking woman sticking out her tongue was the ultimate expression of disapproval. It captured the feeling in the room perfectly.”