Dave Winer writes: …

Dave Winer writes: _From For your consideration: Why isn’t the USA Patriot Act being discussed in this election? Are we supposed to assume that if Kerry is elected he will withdraw executive branch support for that? Who will be Kerry’s attorney general? We know it won’t be Ashcroft. Why don’t they ever tell us who their key people will be? _

Interesting question. I always assumed that Kerry (if elected) would back off of a lot of that stuff until I read an article in October’s Reason magazine (not on-line yet) that discussed Kerry’s long-standing positions in this space. Through the nineties he and Ashcroft were on opposite sides of many of these issues, but with Ashcroft taking the more civil libertarian viewpoint. Apparently his 1997 book The New War: The Web of Crime that Threatens America’s Security gives a good view of how he feels.