Voting, voting rights. In my lifetime, it was with pride that Americans could look to their national government and how it stood up for the disenfranchised and the citizen's whose rights were denied by vicious state officials. This latest move by the Bush Administration to move voting rights out of the hands of citizen's is shameful. Ask yourself if YOU would trust John Ashcroft to look out for your rights.t r u t h o u t - Ashcroft Seeking Control of Voting Rights: "But some former Justice voting-rights officials and some election law and civil rights experts said the department's latest position represented a marked philosophical shift. Historically, they said, the department had been aggressive in supporting the idea of private suits as an important tool in fighting discrimination and other ills, even where such rights were not clearly spelled out by legislation.     'Before this administration, I would say that almost uniformly, the Department of Justice would argue in favor of private rights of action ... to enforce statutes that regulate state and local government,' said Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford University's Law School.     She said the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not originally include a private right to sue state officials who discriminated against aspiring black voters. The Justice Department backed the idea of private suits, nonetheless, in a test case that ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969."