An interesting piece from Harper’s (my favorite magazine) on the U.S. Attorney’s scandal that expands it beyond the firings to consider the actual prosecutions pursued by attorneys working for the Bush administration.
The piece looks at a study from two University of Minnesota professors — Donald Shields and John Cragan — that “undertook a study to ascertain whether the Bush Administration was engaged in criminal prosecutions that targeted Democrats because they are Democrats — in other words, political profiling. Their results are stunning and have not been effectively controverted.”
The results: Seven times as many Democratic officials have been investigated under the Bush administration as Republicans, “a number that exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops.” And the “current Bush Republican Administration appears to be the first to have engaged in political profiling,” according to the piece.
If fully sustained, this will be an indictment not merely of the leadership of the Department. It will also raise fair questions about the professionalism, independence and integrity of federal prosecutors in the field around the country who allowed themselves to be the tools of this program.
The obvious question, which has been asked by Blue Jersey, is what about U.S. Attorney Chris Christie? U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who was a target of the U.S. Attorney during his campaign, might have some thoughts.
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Hank Kalet 