The National Review's Andy McCarthy
takes on fellow conservatives questioning Fitzgerald's partisanship:
I'm too busy today to be monitoring the media, but Ive gotten a lot of questions about this from people who say some conservatives are hitting the airwaves with preemptive suggestions that my friend Pat Fitzgerald may not be as apolitical as his press clippings indicate. In particular, I am being pointed to favorable comments made by Senator Schumer about Pat's competence and integrity.
Let me just say this. Pat is at least as apolitical as his press clippings suggest. And just because Senator Schumer says something doesn't make it wrong.
Pat Fitzgerald is the best prosecutor I have ever seen. By a mile. He is also the straightest shooter I have ever seen - by at least that much. And most importantly, he is a good man.
This investigation has gone on for 22 months. Most of the evidence was collected before autumn 2004 - the last year of delay has mainly been caused by reporters challenging subpoenas in the federal courts.
If Pat were political - or, worse, if he somehow had it in for the Bush administration - it was fully within his power to return indictments in the weeks before the November elections, which would almost certainly have cinched things for Senator Kerry. It is something, I am quite certain, it would never even have occurred to him to do. The only thing the guy I know would do is bring charges or close the case without charges when the facts of the investigation warranted doing so.
McCarthy spoils a good post by spouting some b.s. line about Bush handling the investigation with "decorum". That's apparently conservative code words for "pretending he didn't know who leaked, pretending he wanted to find the culprits, and pretending he would punish them when they were discovered, and lying about it all". But in any case, this post will bear referencing as the Right Wing Noise Machine goes nuclear on Fitzgerald in their efforts to blunt the impact of Fitzmas.
Update: Ashcroft's deputy James Comey, who appointed Fitzgerald to the case, agrees.