The WSJ editors recount how Alaska GOP Senator Ted Stevens was mugged last fall by eager-beaver Justice Department lawyers seeking to bag a senator and advance their careers. The case illustrates twin perils: (1) prosecutorial ambition that leads prosecutors to deliberately withhold exculpatory evidence, despite the law requiring its disclosure; (2) the ability--and inclination--of career civil servants--mostly Democrats, or liberal GOP RINOs (Republicans In Name Only)--to pursue GOP political targets, secure that GOP superiors will refrain from stopping abuses, lest they be accused by Democrats and their political allies in the media of "politicizing" the administration of justice.
The careerists accomplished their real goal, which was not to jail a senator, age 85, for purported offenses that were small potatoes by Washington--let alone, witness Blago and friends--Chicago standards. The main goal was to destroy a senator's campaign for re-election, the indictment brought just on the eve of a GOP primary, too close to it for an alternative GOP candidate to win the nomination, and leaving a badly damaged senator facing the fall campaign. Stevens lost his race narrowly, giving Democrats a crucial seat in their quest for a filibuster-proof Senate. A call by top GOP pols in Alaska for resignation of the new senator thus elected and then the holding of a special election is sure to be ignored, and was made just for the public record.
In a just world these civil servants would not only be fired (which takes forever under civil service rules), but jailed. I am not holding my breath.
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