Ashcroft Battle Likely to Focus on Race Issues The most visible sign of the importance of these issues will come on Thursday, when Justice Ronnie White takes the witness chair to testify against Mr. Ashcroft. Mr. White, the first black member of the Missouri Supreme Court, was denied a federal judgeship in 1999 when Mr. Ashcroft, then a senator from Missouri, waged a successful campaign to depict him as "pro-criminal" and soft on the death penalty. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/14/politics/14ASHC.html?pagewanted=all