I have wondered what Mrs. Carnahan's decision will be. This will be her first vote as a U.S. senator, and if she votes for Ashcroft she will alienate the feminists, civil rights groups, gun control forces, and other Democratic constituencies. But if she says she respects Ashcroft and knows him and believes her husband would have voted for him, people will understand that motivation. On the other hand, her husband and Mrs. Carnahan may have fairly disliked John Ashcroft, and she may be happy to cast her first vote against him. It'll be fascinating to watch.
Polls show that the American people are pretty nearly evenly split on the question.
Bush is happy to face the opposition of the nation's Democrats on this question because he is really scoring points with his conservative base. Remember that Ronald Reagan appointed Ed Meese as Attorney General, and Meese was as disliked by liberals as Ashcroft is. By the way, a few weeks after Meese was confirmed, most people had forgotten the controversy over his nomination. The feeling is that the Democrats never really expected to defeat him, but they had good reason to put up a fight. Liberal groups that support the Democrats wanted a fight, and most of them have raised money appealing to their members to support the fight.