Hundreds of students were cheering for "LIBERTY" at the rally last Wednesday night, and after listening to Mr. Ashcroft's speech, it seemed as if Mr. Ashcroft should have been out there cheering "LIBERTY" with us.

Just like a progressive, Mr. Ashcroft told us that he loves liberty, loves open debate and discussion, that corruption is bad, that discrimination against gay Americans is bad, that terrorism must be stopped, violent crime subdued, and that torture is terrible. How was it that I was agreeing with almost all of Mr. Ashcroft's expressed ideals?

Then, when the event was almost over, suddenly, everything became clear when a student asked Ashcroft a question about the U.S. use of torture. Mr. Ashcroft's answer, and I'm paraphrasing, was to state his complete disgust with what happened in Abu Ghraib. (I think he may have even quoted a speaker from the Welcoming Rally in describing his disgust with Abu Ghraib).

Yet only a few minutes earlier Mr. Ashcroft described his guiding principle in reforming the Justice Department. He told us that "your system is perfectly designed to give you what you're getting" and that "if you don't like what you're getting, you need to change what you're doing."

One of Mr. Ashcroft's changes to that system as Attorney General was to free the torturers at Abu Ghraib from the torture restrictions of the Geneva Conventions. Further, he gave the blanket statement that he liked every reform to the system he made at the Justice Department, including the easing of torture restrictions.

How could Mr. Ashcroft hate torture and love the system he created, if we ended up getting torture from his system? Doesn't he know that the system is designed to give you exactly what you're getting?

Yes, of course he knows. This is why he didn't talk a lot about his policies. Mr. Ashcroft knows that his policies don't live up to his ideals. This is why I agreed with so much of what Mr. Ashcroft said; he only talked vaguely about non-partisan ideals.

He knows that your system is perfectly designed to give you exactly what you're getting. He knows about torture at Abu Ghraib, and he knows that he created the system that brought torture there.

So what did Mr. Ashcroft really show us? He showed us that when he likes his system, but doesn't like what he's getting, he talks about how much he loves liberty and hates torture, he recites poetry, but above all, he avoids any in-depth discussion of specific policies.

Fortunately, Democrats aren't following Mr. Ashcroft's lead. When the College Democrats brought Congressional Leader Nancy Pelosi to campus last semester, we provided everyone in the audience with in-depth information about her policies, so that everyone could see that her ideals were matched by her actions.

With next year's Congressional elections on the horizon, and a wide majority of Americans convinced that the country is heading in the wrong direction, expect Congressional Republicans to talk vaguely about justice and liberty and avoid too many policy details. Democrats have something better to offer, actions and policies that back up our ideals. And when the College Democrats bring speakers to campus next semester, expect them to offer a lot more than just poetry.