Democrats Unite Behind Removing Ashcroft

Mr. Ashcroft has also become a convenient foil for Democratic members of Congress who voted for the antiterrorism Patriot Act and are now finding themselves trying to explain that vote to liberal Democrats who are rallying behind Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont. Dr. Dean denounced the act as a threat to civil liberties and has noted the favorable votes cast by his opponents, including Mr. Gephardt, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Edwards, and Senators Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Bob Graham of Florida. Those candidates, asked about the vote, tend to respond by denouncing Mr. Ashcroft.

"In my first five seconds as president, I would fire John Ashcroft as attorney general," Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri said the other day, bringing cheers from Hispanic leaders in Phoenix.

"We can not allow people like John Ashcroft to take away our rights and our freedoms," Senator John Edwards of North Carolina declared in a sweltering library in Concord, N.H., on Monday, drawing a nearly instantaneous standing ovation.

Or, as Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts put it in a speech on domestic security in Lowell, Mass., last month: "When I am president of the United States, there will be no John Ashcroft trampling on the Bill of Rights."