JOHN ASHCROFT IN NEW HAVEN. OR WAS THAT NEW BABYLON?
Hard to believe that Confederate-honoring, dance- and alcohol-abstaining, creeping-socialism-hating John Ashcroft had a tough time at Yale in the early '60s, but that's what the student paper is reporting. A plucky voyager who descended into Hell for four years to journey home with a Yale diploma.
Among the highlights included in the Yale Daily News report is this quote from David Wyles -- a roommate of Ashcroft classmate Joseph Lieberman -- who knew the Attorney General-designee through the political union: "Ashcroft was a self-righteous prig," Wyles is quoted as saying. "He probably still is, even if he's amiable. Joe was religious too, but Ashcroft was crazy about it." Or this from Bill Dale '64, who lived next door to Ashcroft freshman year and doesn't have quite the same ax to grind as Wyles: "He was as conservative and stiff then as he is on TV now. There's nothing real positive in the way of memories with respect to John Ashcroft." And this from one of Ashcroft's own roommates, John Conrad, that should ensure his bona fides with the Great American heartland: "He told me once, 'In Missouri, we don't call New York the Big Apple. We call it the rotten apple.' And John definitely hated New Haven."
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/Article.asp?type=live&AID=14114