The Real U.S. Attorney scandal


In recent days both Josh Marshall and Paul Krugman have written about what may be the most important, and so far largely unreported, scandal involving the political misuse of U.S. Attorneys. Right now, the focus is on the U.S. Attorneys who were fired because they refused to pervert their offices. Human beings being what they are, it is natural to conclude that not everyone is impervious to the demands of the politically powerful, and as both Krugman and Marshall point out, there is smoke, if not fire, on this front. Krugman reminds us of the following:

For those of us living in the Garden State, the growing scandal over the firing of federal prosecutors immediately brought to mind the subpoenas that Chris Christie, the former Bush “Pioneer” who is now the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, issued two months before the 2006 election — and the way news of the subpoenas was quickly leaked to local news media.

The subpoenas were issued in connection with allegations of corruption on the part of Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who seemed to be facing a close race at the time. Those allegations appeared, on their face, to be convoluted and unconvincing, and Mr. Menendez claimed that both the investigation and the leaks were politically motivated.

Mr. Christie’s actions might have been all aboveboard. But given what we’ve learned about the pressure placed on federal prosecutors to pursue dubious investigations of Democrats, Mr. Menendez’s claims of persecution now seem quite plausible.

Since that announcement, nothing has happened. Ditto the example Josh cites. Just before the election a Louisville TV station reported that U.S. Attorney Dave Huber had received a "matter" involving Steve Henry, the Democratic candidate for governor. Somehow the TV station got possession of all the documents that Huber had in his possession. After spreading the word about the investigation, Huber recused himself from the case, something he should have done from the start. It has since gone nowhere.

So the real news here, which the Democrats should pursue, is not the fact that U.S. Attorneys were punished for acting professionally, but that there is every reason to believe that many have been acting as instruments of the most rawly political administration in American history. As Krugman points out, a recent study shows that during the Bush Democrats have been three times more likely to be targets than Republicans. This has been largely under the radar because most of these cases do not involve federal officials.

We can only hope and pray that we get a Democrat as president in 2008. It is to be hoped that he or she will appoint an attorney general who will turn the Justice Department back into ... well, how about a "justice" department. My preference would be an appointment of someone who is not a presidential crony or a hack politician; someone who could be trusted to enforce the law without fear or favor, against Democrat and Republican alike. How about Patrick Fitzgerald? An appointment like that would demonstrate more than any rhetoric that the new President was serious about making changes in Washington.
Posted: Saturday - March 10, 2007 at 01:15 PM          

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