TChris wrote earlier about Paul Krugman's column in today's New York Times calling John Ashcroft s the "worst Attorney General in history." Eric Alterman and Atrios agree. Here's Eric:

The thing is, even this understates the case. Remember John Ashcroft is the man who claims to have it in his power to arrest you, Mr. American Citizen, and hold you incommunicado in prison forever if he wants. He has apparently passed along a memo to the president claiming the right to torture and kill you as well.

Here's Atrios:

Ashcroft is corrupt. He's stupid. He's incompetent. He loves the spotlight. He believes laws don't apply to Republicans. He's obsessed with porn, pot, and prostitution. When he did his latest "WE'VE ARRESTED A TERRORIST!!!!!" news conference yesterday I thought that finally there was a bit of skepticism on the part of the press. Maybe I was just projecting, but I sensed a bit of subliminal eyerolling coming from the CNN anchordesk.