Shining on Justice scandal with Starr light

[maddezmom]

By Gene Lyons
May 27, 2007 6:00 AM
Partisan GOP prosecutors? What else is new? The editors of America's most prestigious newspapers pronounce themselves flabbergasted by the Bush administration's corrupt and nakedly partisan machinations at the Department of Justice. As well they should. Hiring and firing U.S. attorneys according to their willingness to use the criminal justice system to benefit the Republican Party shocks the conscience of anybody committed to the Constitution and the rule of law. Some of us wonder why it's taken them so long to grasp the obvious. Because last time around, The New York Times and Washington Post were urging them on.

Prosecuting federal crimes from political corruption and bank fraud to terrorism, U.S. attorneys wield enormous discretionary power. As The Times explains in a stinging editorial, "they can wiretap people's homes, seize property and put people in jail for life. They can destroy businesses and affect the outcomes of elections. It has always been understood that although they are appointed by a president, usually from his own party, once in office they must operate in a nonpartisan way and be insulated from outside pressures."

Indeed, the revelation that an inexperienced ideologue like Monica Goodling, the GOP apparatchik who testified before Congress recently. was given authority by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to draw up hit lists of U.S. attorneys too willing to prosecute GOP bribery scandals and/or unwilling to pursue meritless voting-fraud charges against Democrats strikes at the essence of democracy. The Times' editors won't be satisfied until the incompetent toady Gonzales is forced from office.

Funny, because when Kenneth Starr and his Merry Men subjected the state of Arkansas to a six-year inquisition, Beltway thinkers treated him as an untouchable. Those of us who objected were scorned as "Clinton apologists," and worse. Begging for leaks out of Starr's office like dogs at the dinner table, the national press became prosecutorial press touts.

Ancient history? Maybe so. In the end, Starr found absolutely nothing to pin on Bill or Hillary Clinton, doubtless the two most thoroughly vetted politicians in U.S. history. Even so, the Arkansas experience constitutes a vivid illustration of all that can go wrong when law enforcement becomes a partisan cudgel. Not everybody, see, could afford top-dollar legal representation, nor enjoyed the protections of White House celebrity.

more:http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070527/OPINION/705270348

[MissWaverly]

1. at the cost of millions of dollars of our tax money

and now the GOP are whining over the thousands spent over the current investigations which are sorely needed. Cry me a river.

[grasswire]

2. thank you again, Gene Lyons

...(and Joe Conason) for helping to stop the coup against Bill Clinton.