Mr. Clean

SEN. John Ashcroft was hit with the biggest scandal of his political career in the middle of his second term as governor of Missouri. One evening in May 1990, his 12-year-old son needed to look at a book on Elizabethan England for a school assignment. Librarian Monteria Hightower, contacted at home by a security officer eager to help his boss, agreed to drive over and unlock the front door of the state library, which is closed on Sundays. Andrew Ashcroft spent about two and a half hours conducting his research.

The next day, Miss Hightower complained to the press about the inconvenience. Newspapers reported the story, a few editorialists huffed about abuse of power, and Ashcroft quickly apologized. Most folks in Missouri just laughed. Ashcroft’s squeaky-clean standards were well known. “If ever a state had a less exciting governor than John Ashcroft,” a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch griped shortly after the library incident, “I never heard about it.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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SEN. John Ashcroft was hit with the biggest scandal of his political career in the middle of his second term as governor of Missouri. One evening in May 1990, his 12-year-old son needed to look at a book on Elizabethan England for a school assignment. Librarian Monteria Hightower, contacted at home by a security officer eager to help his boss, agreed to drive over and unlock the front door of the state library, which is closed on Sundays. Andrew Ashcroft spent about two and a half hours conducting his research.

The next day, Miss Hightower complained to the press about the inconvenience. Newspapers reported the story, a few editorialists huffed about abuse of power, and Ashcroft quickly apologized. Most folks in Missouri just laughed. Ashcroft’s squeaky-clean standards were well known. “If ever a state had a less exciting governor than John Ashcroft,” a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch griped shortly after the library incident, “I never heard about it.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.