Over the weekend, Adam Nagourney had an article in the New York Times about the Ashcroft-bashing that has become a staple of Democratic presidential candidates’ oratory. To read the article, you would think that John Ashcroft is the most loathed man in America. That is, in fact, how Nagourney ends the piece. “‘I think he might be the most loathed man in America,’ said Janos Marton, 20, a Dartmouth student who pressed Mr. Edwards on the subject of Mr. Ashcroft’s civil liberties record at a town hall meeting the other night. ‘The way he is undermining civil liberties is disgraceful.’”

We also learn that Ashcroft is “an unpopular figure.” A “Republican strategist” is quoted anonymously to the effect that Ashcroft is a political liability for the president: “None of those Democrats can beat George Bush, but John Ashcroft can.” (That’s a nice line, almost Grover Norquist-like in its quotability.)

Nagourney continues, “But a senior political adviser to Mr. Bush argued that no matter how unpopular Mr. Ashcroft might be, he would not hurt the president.”

Enough already. It’s quite clear that Ashcroft is unpopular with Democrats (and libertarians). But–and I know this will come as a shock to the Times–many, many Americans are not Democrats. Last month, Harris Interactive found that 54 percent of respondents rated Ashcroft’s job performance positively, only 32 percent negatively. Gray Davis would kill for those numbers. Ashcroft is more popular than Hillary Clinton (barely), Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Joe Lieberman, or John Kerry.