I

Now Ashcroft will decide who’s on the bench.
The civil rights division will retrench–
Unless it finds that civil rights entails
Some breaks at last for pure white Christian males.
The jobs and housing efforts that depend
On Justice will on Ashcroft’s watch all end.
And solemn friend-of-court briefs will be filed:
“Abortion simply means to kill a child.”
One comfort lasts, as dreams of justice shatter:
Ralph Nader said it really wouldn’t matter.

                                    II

Gale Norton thinks there’s no place you can spoil
If what you do to it produces oil.
She’d like to see no regulations left;
She thinks controls on property is theft.
Emissions? Who should monitor their flow?
To her it’s clear: the firm’s own CEO.
So drillers drill. Here’s what Interior’s got:
A protégée of James (The Crackpot) Watt.
Don’t tear your hair and curse those who begat her:
Remember: Nader said it wouldn’t matter.