Meet Georgia Thompson, former official in the Wisconsin Department of Administration. She was convicted of fraud in connection with an alleged bid-rigging scheme, one used loudly, but unsuccessfully, by the Republicans against Governor Jim Doyle last fall.
Today, a federal appeals court reversed her conviction, largely because of a lack of evidence.
There is a George Bush-appointed US Attorney who has much to answer for.
His name is Steven Biskupic.
The judges harshly criticized the evidence Biskupic used to convict Thompson. One called it "beyond thin" while another questioned why Doyle, his aides or company officials weren't charged if they were involved in wrongdoing.
There are some officials in the articles who call Mr. Biskupic "apolitical," and someone who prosecuted members of both parties. But it's hard to miss the obvious conclusion in the current climate:
University of Wisconsin law professor Frank Tuerkheimer, a U.S. attorney under President Carter, said the U.S. attorney firings have undermined confidence in the Department of Justice.
He said he didn't think Biskupic was motivated by politics, but he wondered whether the case helped him keep his job.
"As they reviewed each U.S. attorney's office they might have said, 'Hey, we'll keep this guy in because he charged Georgia Thompson.' But I'm just speculating," he said. "If you get rid of people because they haven't been political enough, then the inference is those who are around are political."
This, my friends, is what they've done to the justice system. Prosecutors are free to make political prosecutorial decisions. They appear to be required to do so. They may feel the need to do so, even when not required, by seeing and hearing what's happening in other districts.
The Judiciary Committees might want to add Mr. Biskupic to their long list of witnesses. I'd like to know why he undertook a prosecution of a case so thin that an appeals court threw it out -- I mean, not back for a new trial -- on oral presentation alone. What was the prosecutor thinking?
This is how I keep my job? By making a campaign issue for the Republican challenger to the Governor?
Another fig thrown your way, Mr. Leahy.