Ashcroft's replies to questions about Carnivore, MS antitrust

[Declan McCullagh]

On Sun, Jan 28, 2001 at 12:18:52PM -0800, James A. Donald wrote:
>      --
> At 12:27 PM 1/28/2001 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>  > And, as EPIC's Marc Rotenberg points
>  > out, Ashcroft did not pledge to work with outside experts on a
>  > technical review of Carnivore.
> 
> This is somewhat unfair.  Ashcroft's answers were as bland and 
> uninformative as possible, because he is being borked.  No matter what he 
> said, it will be used against him, so the best bet is to say as little as 
> possible.

Yes, and no. I agree that tactically, he is being smart. Almost too smart:
His lapses of memory, if you read the full Q&A, are both frequent
and useful.

But what's good politics is not necessarily what's right, as is true
in this case. If the nation's top l.e. officer is asked about what
rights Americans should have under the law, I don't expect him
to hedge or quibble or made nice-nice noises to please the Democrats.

-Declan