That man sitting before the Senate Judiciary Committee is no kooky right-winger. He's not anti-black, anti-Catholic, or antisemitic, as holding an honorary degree from Bob Jones University might suggest. He is against abortion, he admits it, but he'll observe Roe v. Wade. He's a man of law.

Segregation? He's against it. Never mind that he fought integration when he was attorney general and governor of Missouri. He's a little sentimental about the Confederacy, yes, but if he had been alive at the time of the Civil War, he would have fought for the Union. Don't call him a partisan Republican, please. When he's looking for the name of an illustrious predecessor at Justice, Robert Kennedy leaps into his mind. Harry Truman leads his list of prominent Missourians.

This is an erstwhile club member who thanks senators for mean questions and humbly praises their candor when they blast his record.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) noted his sense of humor and pointed out how handy it would be when the witness was discussing "the death penalty and other weighty matters" at the Justice Department.

The makeover of John Ashcroft, a cranky extremist, for his confirmation hearings is a masterpiece. His handlers have created a genial healer; his haberdashery is impeccable and so are his manners. Five young men with black suits and stern expressions sit a row behind him and hand over notes when things get dicey.

This graduate of Yale and Harvard Law is pretty sophisticated about most things, but not about hot potatoes like Bob Jones U. and Southern Partisan magazine, a publication to which he confided his misty-eyed appreciation for the Confederacy, and one that has a profitable sideline in T-shirts celebrating the assassination of Lincoln. Wouldn't you know Lincoln is Ashcroft's favorite political figure? He was shocked, shocked to learn about Southern Partisan's excesses.

Ashcroft the nominee was engulfed in loving friends, colleagues and family with a heavy sprinkling of blacks and women who were so conspicuous in the protest groups outside. This John Ashcroft wouldn't dream of turning down a president's choice for the Cabinet just because there were differences of opinion. He's tolerant almost to a fault, and his opening statement could have been the bid of an aspirant to the chairmanship of the ACLU, not top gun for George W. Bush's legal team.

Opening day theatrics went like clockwork. Sen. Jean Carnahan (D-Mo.), the widow of Ashcroft's opponent, Gov. Mel Carnahan, brought her poignant dignity to a cameo appearance as a presenter of the nominee. Her words were notably chilly. She urged her colleagues to be fair, but it made a nice picture.

Committee Republicans came through with econiums to the nominee's character and integrity. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) fervently praised Ashcroft as someone "who always does right by the family farmer." Even Ashcroft's 2-year-old red-headed grandson, Jimmy, performed perfectly. He came onto the scene wailing, but his grandfather cheerfully introduced him and he fell miraculously quiet.

On Day Two, a little celebrity caucus was brought on just before the lunch break. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) gushed about Ashcroft. So did former senator John Danforth (R-Mo.), the patron of Clarence Thomas, Bush I's land mine Supreme Court appointment. Like father, like son: Thomas was supposed to flatten all objections because he is black; for Bush II, Ashcroft's club membership is expected to stifle resistance.

There were moments of discord and disbelief, but these were treated like caterer's mistakes at a splashy wedding. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) challenged Ashcroft's record on school desegregation and voter registration. In Missouri, Ashcroft had resisted a voluntary desegregation plan and vetoed a registration expansion scheme. To answer Kennedy, Ashcroft read his veto messages.

If the hearings resume next week, Ashcroft can expect a kinder, gentler hand on the gavel in the person of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Sen. Pat Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, was temporary chairman but turns into a pumpkin when W. takes the oath.

There's only one thing wrong with the Ashcroft picture, the figure of Judge Ronnie White, the Missouri Supreme Court judge who was deprived of a seat on the federal bench by the persecution of Ashcroft, who got every Republican in the Senate to vote against his nomination. Ashcroft found White insufficiently enthusiastic about the death penalty.

By all accounts, Ronnie White is a distinguished member of the State Supreme Court. Ashcroft misrepresented his record. Ronnie White is black. Ashcroft, his allies insist, is no racist. Did he slander Ronnie White for crass politics -- an effort to make the death sentence an issue in his campaign against Carnahan? The paragon in the witness chair would not do anything like that. Malice is a singularly unattractive trait in an attorney general.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

###