I work at a hardware store in Kansas City, MO. John Ashcroft came through my register today. He bought some little fiddly screw bits. He uses a MasterCard. I have not much more to report.
Was he just trying to get the fiddly little screw bits away from public view?
Who knows? He was polite and efficient, so perhaps he was trying to fly under the radar. However, if that was the case, he should have paid with cash. The total was under $3.
What is his Master Card number?
Yes, and the expiration date, and the code from the back. Does he have a middle name or initial?
When I was working at a Seattle-area Tower Records store in the late 90’s, I sold some CDs and DVDs to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. As he was approaching my register, I figured he looked familiar. Then when he popped out his credit card for the purchase, that confirmed it. 
I used to live in a tourist town… it was actually very small. Beautiful town that is actually famous for its beauty and quietness. There was one section of town that stretched some distance off in the woods and the property value went up exponentially from what 90% of the town owned up to many times that in a short distance. There was always rumored “this famous person”… but damn rarely you’d know much more than a rumor, and I and just about nobody else cared enough to do more than note it. That’s probably why they were there. If they showed up it was extremely rare… and in most cases it was their housekeeper that went to go get whatever they wanted.
Boone Cave, outside of Rocheport 1989
I knew he would. He He
Didn’t he lose to a dead guy for Senate or Governor?
Thumbscrews.
Heh… when I lived on the Hill I ran into him at Safeway a couple times. My strongest memory was of the first time. He had two SS agents with him (which in DC isn’t that big a deal, but it was somehow oddly absurd in a Safeway at eleven o’clock at night). Then I saw him. A smallish (not short per se) very tired, very human looking man. I was totally taken aback. His tie was slightly pulled out, his face was ruddy. He just looked like a very hard working person stopping by to pick up some milk and eggs on his way home. So… well, unexpectedly human.
ETA: Note that in the area almost every polititian is in perma-photo-op mode.