The Washington Post’s Carrie Johnson reports that back in 2003 then-Attorney General John Ashcroft gave the president five recommendations of people to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Each was a loyal Republican. But the White House was furious that none would clearly advocate for harsh detainee interrogation methods– and that none were Justice Dept. lawyer John Yoo, who wrote the now infamous 2002 "torture memos."

The administration would eventually choose Jack Goldsmith as a compromise candidate to lead OLC. Goldsmith resigned after a less than year, but not before re-writing Yoo’s most notorious memos.

Ashcroft will testify before the House Judiciary Committee today. As Johnson points out, civil libertarians would have never expected to view John "Patriot Act" Ashcroft as a voice of reason. But standards change when the administration policy is state-sponsored torture.-MB

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