The administration of President-elect Bush is rapidly taking shape. But several of those he's nominated for posts in his Cabinet have already stirred up lots of dust. The most controversial choice yet is that of John Ashcroft, the former Senator from Missouri who was just defeated in his bid for re-election, as Attorney General.

The National Urban League is scrupulously nonpartisan, and we haven't weighed in whether or not the Senate should confirm Mr. Ashcroft.

We do believe that presidents should be cut plenty of slack in assembling their leadership team. But the Senate owes it to the American people to exercise due diligence before passing judgment on John Ashcroft's suitability to serve as the supreme lawyer of the land.

Four lines of questioning come to mind.

For starters, the Senate should determine whether Mr. Ashcroft intends to vigorously investigate those voting irregularities that served to suppress the black vote in Florida and elsewhere and, if wrongdoing be found, whether he intends to prosecute the wrongdoers.

Perhaps what happened to numerous black voters in Florida was coincidental or accidental.

But let us remember that at first complaints by individuals, and civil rights and civil liberties groups that some police departments were engaging in racial profiling were glibly dismissed, too.

In fact, racial profiling was occurring, and the facts about the violations of civil liberties got uglier the more the U.S. Justice Department and other investigatory bodies dug into it. The Senate must be assured that, as Attorney General, Mr. Ashcroft will get to the bottom of the voting debacle.

Secondly, will Mr. Ashcroft as Attorney General also take the baton from the Clinton Administration and pressure police department to cut out all the brutality and abuse?

There is no question that distrust of the police is widespread among African Americans and that that distrust is grounded in the reality of their lives. That this is so was underscored again in the June 2000 survey of black New Yorkers released by our affiliate, the New York Urban League.

That poll sounded the feelings on a variety of subjects of the most diverse black community in the world: Just over 54 percent of those questioned were U.S.-born African Americans. The rest came from all over the African Diaspora-from the many nations of Black Africa and the Caribbean, from South and Central America, and from Europe, too.

One of its major findings was that blacks of all economic classes express a profound wariness of law enforcement agencies.

For example, nearly two-thirds of black males and more than half of black females said they worry that they will be subjected to police brutality; 89 percent of those surveyed said it was a serious problem, including 96 percent of those with annual incomes above $75,000.

But blacks are far from being anti-police. Indeed, the survey indicates that black New Yorkers are strongly in favor of good, effective police: 49 percent said the greatest change needed to improve their personal quality of life would be the assurance of safer streets at night.

That's just one of the things which show that blacks need no lectures about the importance of good policing to the well being of their neighborhoods and individuals who live in them. Will they get Mr. Ashcroft's support for it?

A third broad line of inquiry of Mr. Ashcroft for the Senate is whether he is determined to combat discrimination and ensure full access to opportunity in our society. The New York Urban League poll is useful here as well, for it's just one of the most recent indications that black support for affirmative action and other steps necessary to fight discrimination is strongly supported by the masses of African Americans at all levels of income and education.

Lastly, the Senate must examine Mr. Ashcroft's role in the Senate's rejection of Judge Ronnie White, of the Missouri Supreme Court, an African American, for a seat on the federal bench.

In that case, Mr. Ashcroft described the Judge White, widely respected and with a long record of service as an attorney and a judge, as "pro criminal," surely one of the most astonishing charges ever made against a nominee for the federal court. It was a charge which drew heavy criticism not only from civil rights groups, but from the editorial pages of numerous newspapers around the country, including those in Missouri.

Does Mr. Ashcroft's high profile role in defeating a qualified black nominee for the federal court reveal any deficiencies of judgment or temperament that will affect his recommending future candidates for the bench-beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court?

It's long been said that the Senate of the United States is the most exclusive "club" in the world, and that club is by tradition always gracious to formers colleagues. We can expect it to be no less so for Mr. Ashcroft.

At the same time, however, the confirmation process isn't supposed to be a cakewalk. The Senate has a greater responsibility here: to the traditions and duties of the office of Attorney General and to the people of the United States. It must assure us all of this nominee's fitness to serve.