President George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general, John Ashcroft, must wonder why he's gotten so much heat for comments he made about the Confederacy. After all, in the ultra-conservative circles he frequents, there's nothing taboo about his unreconstructed opinions -- even his likely future boss has a soft spot in his heart for the South's lost cause.

Several members of the Republican elite -- including former President George Bush -- have gone to considerable lengths to establish their credibility with the neo-Confederate movement, a political phenomenon in which states' rights advocacy, Christian fundamentalism, anti-immigrant sentiment and virulent racism intersect.

Ashcroft has come under fire for granting an interview to the leading neo-Confederate publication, Southern Partisan, but he's not the only Republican bigwig to schmooze with the publication. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, as well as Senators Phil Gramm and Jesse Helms, and Rep. Dick Armey, have also been interviewed by a magazine that Ashcroft praised for "defending Southern patriots" such as Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.