Visiting with Ashcroft

On a recent trip to Washington DC, I had the privilege (?) of meeting with former US Senator and Attorney General John Ashcroft. I had expected General Ashcroft to be somewhat nice or at least friendly because he comes off as so cold-hearted in the press. I don't know why I expected the person that has done more to take away civil liberties from the American people to be kinder than the Grinch, but he sure wasn't.
Our meeting started out fine, as he was talking to my group of six about leadership. Halfway through the conversation, his cell phone began to ring. Without even looking at it, he quickly snapped, "That's my wife. She's gonna have to learn that some things are more important than she is, and my phone doesn't always get answered." After which, he quickly resumed talking about leadership.
Call me dumb, but I don't think it is the smartest thing to say things like that in front of complete strangers, since they might, God forbid, blog about it. On top of that, I don't really feel like I'm more important than Ashcroft's wife to the former AG. At least I shouldn't be. Maybe he's a little hurt that he hasn't had anything to censor or anybody to unconstitutionally arrest over the past few years.