In today’s column, Paul Krugman of the New York Times argues that John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in U.S. history. He states:

First, there’s the absence of any major successful prosecutions. The one set of convictions that seemed fairly significant � that of the “Detroit 3″ � appears to be collapsing over accusations of prosecutorial misconduct.

This echoes a similar allegation in a May 11 column, where Krugman wrote:

After two and a half years, during which he arrested and secretly detained more than a thousand people, Mr. Ashcroft has yet to convict any actual terrorists.

Oh? What about shoebomber Richard Reid? What about Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh? What about Yahya Goba, Shafal Mosed, Yasein Taher, Taysal Galab, Mukhtar al-Bakri and Sahim Alwan of Lackawanna, New York? What about Jeffrey Battle, Patrice Ford, Ahmed Bilal, Muhammad Bilal, and October Lewis of Portland, Oregon? And Mike Hawash? How about Masoud Ahmad Khan, Seifullah Chapman, Yong Ki Kwon, Donald Surratt, and Hammad Abdur-Raheem from the Washington DC area? What about James Ujaama? And Iyman Faris?

Krugman is entitled to his opinion about Ashcroft, no matter how ridiculous, but as the saying goes, he is not entitled to his own facts.