John Ashcroft is getting ready to roll out of the Office of the Attorney General. Alberto Gozalez, the incoming AG, seems like a good pick. He served as the White House counsel in Bush's first term. Gonzalez will be the nation's first Hispanic attorney general. He barely squeaked by without a Democratic filibuster. Ashcroft is dropping some hard-hitting remarks as he leaves office.

Ashcroft credited tough prosecution and long sentences for the continuing decline in the rate of violent crime in the United States. "Criminals can't commit crimes from behind prison walls," he said.

Ashcroft declined to identify by name foes he termed "cynics and defeatists," but provoked laughter when he criticized the New York Times for its reaction to declining crime rates.

"The New York Times annually sums up this resistance to reality when it runs a story wondering with violent crime at an all-time low why so many people are in prison," he said.