1 Joy, I don't know that running into him is such a good thing. I met him once (when he was governor) and my wife knew both Mr. & Mrs. Ashcroft. My comments on him becoming AG were succint - He's an a$$h01e, but he's honest, honorable, and capable. I don't like the man personnally, but he was more than competent professionally. My wife has even fewer words of praise for personal habits (she was a tour guide at the capital building/governor's mansion) but she did say he was more competent than others. She (and I) really liked Carnahan for his ability - he was a hard on defense Truman democrat. It was a shame what his wife did to his memory in the two-year fill in. Anyhow, just figured I'd throw in my two cents on Ashcroft. SGT Dave "Wow, this really dates me, doesn't it?"

2 Weeeeellll . . . when someone at the podium became overly exuberent and stated that Ashcroft really should be our next President, there were odd, pained looks at the bloggers' table. Though we managed not to roll our eyes or anything.

3 Following up a bit late here, but it happened that Jim Hoft and I left Santa Barbara on the same commercial small plane with Ashcroft and his wife. In fact I was seated right across from them in the back row, and Jim was right in front of me. The Ashcrofts worked a crossword puzzle together. They were very friendly and charming, once we broke the ice a bit. Not at all the kind of bad guy he's been portrayed as, and actually quite funny.