Confirmation Makeovers

By DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON

If you dropped in on Capitol Hill from Mars last week, you might have thought George W. Bush had tapped liberals for two of his most sensitive Cabinet posts. John Ashcroft, the hard-right nominee for Attorney General, told astonished Senators at his confirmation hearing that he would "aggressively" enforce abortion laws and wouldn't challenge the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, even though he has spent much of his career trying to overturn it. In another hearing room, Interior Secretary-designate Gale Norton, a James Watt disciple who used to champion the rights of oil companies and mine operators, insisted that she's now a tree-hugging naturalist who believes in global warming and has a soft spot for the Endangered Species Act.

Frustrated Democrats complained of "confirmation conversion," particularly by Ashcroft. As Missouri's attorney general, he once risked a contempt-of-court citation for not enforcing school desegregation. But during four days of hearings he invoked Bobby Kennedy as a role model. "It seems there are two Ashcrofts," said Democratic Senator Charles Schumer. Even Republicans were surprised, according to Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, that Ashcroft seemed "so willing" to enforce laws he had previously opposed.

The makeovers appear to be doing their job. Norton and Ashcroft are both likely to win enough votes for confirmation. And conservative groups, who know how the game is played, aren't worried that their two favorite nominees have strayed. "I don't think Ashcroft has changed his position on abortion," says David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. Democrats don't believe it either. You'd have to be from Mars to buy a story like that.

--By Douglas Waller/Washington