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John Ashcroft, Poet, Part 2

Timothy Noah
Posted Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001, at 1:01 PM ET

Earlier this month, Chatterbox, in his ongoing effort to locate valuable objets trouvés on the Internet, directed readers to what he thought was a poem by George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general. In fact, it was the lyric to a song. Click here and scroll to the bottom to read it, courtesy of Beliefnet.com. Now the intrepid Smoking Gun Web site has done Chatterbox and Beliefnet one better and posted an MP3 of Ashcroft singing his gospel composition, "Blessed Be That City." The words (which contain a censorious reference to "boom boxes a blastin' " that may offend some African-Americans) provide conclusive evidence, if any were needed, that Ashcroft's songwriting strength is not as a lyricist. But the music is surprisingly compelling. Indeed, Ashcroft's sense of rhythm seems so well developed on this slickly produced track that one imagines he'll have to exert considerable effort to keep off the dance floor at tonight's inaugural balls.

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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