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Crackingham With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday rem oved the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statue s for the past 3 1/2 years. Spirit of Justice, with her one breast expos ed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall. The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breas t showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also p rovoked jokes about and criticism of the deeply religious Ashcroft. The 12-foot, 6-inch aluminum statues were installed shortly after the buildi ng opened in the 1930s. With a change in leadership at Justice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced the question: Would they stay or would they go? He regularly defl ected the question, saying he had weightier issues before him.
View Replies To: Crackingham I have heard about the covering of the statues before but wasn't sure if it was just folklore - apparently it was't. I have to admit that coverin g the statues is a just bit over the top.
View Replies To: Crackingham The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breas t showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. This had to be one of the most stoopid, ridiculous wastes of tax-payer mo ney we've come across. What, Ashcroft couldn't speak in the Great Hall i n such a way that the *breast* wouldn't be in the shot?
View Replies To: Moral Hazard He had a problem with them because they made him think about Huge Marble Breasts, and he was disturbed by the strange tightening of his pants whe n he approached them...
View Replies To: MississippiDeltaDawg This had to be one of the most stoopid, ridiculous wastes of tax-payer mo ney we've come across Let me think on this a few minutes.
View Replies To: Crackingham From what I recall, the statues were covered because they were becoming a distraction as juuvenile press photographers were going out of their wa y to include the naked statues in pictures of Ashcroft as an attempt to mock his religious beliefs. They could only get away with somethhing lik e that because they were mocking Christians.
View Replies To: balch3 Yes and let's remind people of the facts here: It was Clinton AG Janet Reno who covered the statue with a drape. When Ashcroft came in he inquired about it & decided not to buck the establis hment (lest the libs criticize him for being a hypocrite Christian or wh at not) but he couldn't see LEASING / RENTING the cloth that was used to cover the statue so he purchased it for pennies on the $ and the msm ma de hay of it.
View Replies To: Eagles6 Interesting point I gather the same could apply to the other posters he re who are using the occasion to mock Ashcroft. These guys want to kill yo ur babies, take away your cigarettes, and now steal your home and toss y ou in the street.
View Replies To: Crackingham "When former Attorney General Edwin Meese released a report on pornograph y in the 1980s, photographers dived to the floor to capture the image of him raising the report in the air, with the partially nude female statu e behind him."
asp The issue at the heart of this piece is two works of art created for the newly-constructed Great Hall of the Department of Justice in the 1930s b y German sculptor Carl Paul Jennewein: a pair of 12-1/2 foot statues rep resenting the Spirit of Justice and the Majesty of the Law. The former i s a female figure draped in a toga, with raised arms and one exposed bre ast; the latter is a male figure with a draped cloth covering his midsec tion. Press photographers over the years had sometimes taken advantage o f the positioning of the statues to snap "boob in front of the boob" sho ts (such as a photo of Edwin Meese, Attorney General during President Re agan's second term, holding a report on pornography aloft with the parti ally nude female statue visible behind him). After current Attorney Gene ral John Ashcroft was captured by press cameramen in similar shots, the media reported in January 2002 that Ashcroft had ordered (or approved) t he Department of Justice's spending of $8,650 for drapes to hide the two statues because he didn't like being photographed in front of them (or, worse, that Ashcroft was a embarrassingly prudish Philistine who was of fended by any representation of nudity). The Department of Justice spoke speople maintained that the drapes were used not to hide the statues but to "provide a nice background for television cameras" during formal eve nts; that the purchase had been made by a DoJ staffer on her own initiat ive to save the $2,000 per event cost of renting them; and that "the att orney general was not even aware of the situation." Critics held that th e DoJ's disputing the issue of who actually authorized the purchase of t he drapes was a smoke screen (since rental drapes were already being use d to cover the statues); that the drapes have been left hanging all the time and are not put in place only when televised events are being held in the Great Hall; and that even if Attorney General Ashcroft didn't kno w about or authorize the purchase, he certainly didn't order the drapes removed, either.
View Replies To: Eagles6 They could only get away with somethhing like that because they were mock ing Christians. They weren't "mocking Christians", they might have been mocking Ashcroft, who came across as somewhat straitlaced, or at least they were trying t o create an ironic image. The reporters weren't the only ones who gave Ashcroft a hard time. I rece ntly read the following story: When Ashcroft first started working in th e justice department, long before he became attorney general, he had a b oss who relentlessly ridiculed his uptight attitude.
View Replies To: tophat9000 Carl Paul Jennewein is actually an American sculpture who had the unfortu nate circumstance of having been born in Deutschland. The second he got his permanent residency papers here he joined the military to fight in W WI. Personally, I think he made a mistake since we were entering the war on t he wrong side (WWI, not WWII, any Freepers out there who forgot to read) . In any case, he received an award to study in Rome that allowed him to bo w out of his remaining military service. This guy did a lot of major stuff architectural works in fact.
View Replies To: Crackingham The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breas t showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures.
View Replies To: iconoclast " Ashcroft embarrassed you, too" Not at all. If he didn't like the pics that were being published, he had every right in the world to change the background. It is rather childish for you libs to judge Ashcrofts stint as head of the Justice Department on this bullshit and rehash it at this late date.
View Replies To: balch3 "Because the MSM never misses a chance to ridicule people of faith. I've yet to hear anyone challenge the man on the substance of hi s term over the judial branch.
View Replies To: wideminded The reporters weren't the only ones who gave Ashcroft a hard time. I rece ntly read the following story: When Ashcroft first started working in th e justice department, long before he became attorney general, he had a b oss who relentlessly ridiculed his uptight attitude. Don't you do even the slightest investigation before you make potentially embarrassing comments? Ashcro ft was Missouri AG, Governor, and Senator before becoming AG in 2001, af ter he lost a controversial election to "Dead Man" Carnahan. Clarence Th omas was confirmed to the SCOTUS back in the first Bush administration ( 1989-1992).
View Replies To: Crackingham The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breas t showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures.
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