By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) John Ashcroft pledged Wednesday that as President-elect Bush's attorney general he would not challenge Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized a woman's right to an abortion, before the Supreme Court.
Ashcroft, a firm opponent of abortion who once labeled Roe "a miserable failure," told senators at his confirmation hearing Wednesday, "The Supreme Court very clearly doesn't want to deal with that issue again."
Democrats conceded that Ashcroft is likely to win confirmation despite vehement opposition from women's organizations and civil rights groups.
Ashcroft also said he would defend the constitutionality of gun restrictions that he opposed as a senator after Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., asked him why he worked to defeat her proposals to make gun crimes subject to racketeering laws.
"I don't believe the Second Amendment to be one that forbids any regulation of guns," Ashcroft said. "There are a number of enactments I would not prefer as policy but which I believe would be constitutional."
He opposed Feinstein's measure, Ashcroft said, after the American Civil Liberties Union and others cited government abuses of the racketeering statutes to seize defendants' property
of Roe, Ashcroft added that for the Justice Department to press the matter before the high court would damage its standing on other matters.
Democrats also chastised Ashcroft for his conservative rhetoric in 1998 when he unsuccessfully sought to build his support among social and religious conservatives into a bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
"There are two things you find in the middle of the road: a moderate and a dead skunk," Ashcroft said at the time. On Wednesday, he called it a humorous effort to emphasize his conservatism.
