AG John Ashcroft wins again with a new policy directive that furthers his drive to take control of the the U.S. judicial system by forcing federal prosecutors to operate in an ever narrower ideological box.

Attorney General John Ashcroft today made it tougher for federal prosecutors to strike plea bargains with criminal defendants, requiring attorneys to seek the most serious charges possible in almost all cases.

The policy directive issued by Mr. Ashcroft is the latest in a series of steps the Justice Department has taken in recent months to combat what it sees as dangerously lenient practices by some federal prosecutors and judges.

The move also effectively expands to the entire gamut of federal crimes the attorney general's tough stance on the death penalty, which he has sought in numerous cases over the objections of federal prosecutors.

With the backing of many Republicans in Congress, the Justice Department has sought to impose greater uniformity and "accountability" in federal cases.

In addition to the expanded use of the death penalty, Mr. Ashcroft also announced a plan last month to track data on judges who give lighter sentences than federal guidelines prescribe.

But dissenters attacked the monitoring plan as a judicial black list, arguing that denying judges and prosecutors the discretion to analyze the facts of a case is a mistake.

A decade ago, Attorney General Janet Reno enacted a policy to give federal prosecutors more discretion over how their cases should be handled by allowing for an "individualized assessment" of the facts and circumstances of the case.

But Mr. Ashcroft's directive effectively scales back that initiative in an effort to restrict the use of plea bargains and create what the Justice Department said would be more "transparency" in federal prosecutions.

Makes you wish he hadn't lost his Senate seat to the dead guy.