the boobs are back

In 2002, John Ashcroft spent $8,000 of taxpayer money to drape the naked breast of a statue in the Great Hall of the Justice Department. He never clarified if the sight of a bare-breasted woman was offensive or if her bare breast in the background made him look even more like the boob he was.

Anyhow, new Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez just reversed at least one of John Ashcroft’s goofier acts:

With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years. Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice’s ceremonial Great Hall.The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about and criticism of the deeply religious Ashcroft.The 12-foot, 6-inch aluminum statues were installed shortly after the building opened in the 1930s.

Via DDTB