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Law and Odor
It won't happen but it should. Democratic Senator Mark Begich of Alaska won't step aside, but he should. Chances are, former Senator Ted Stevens would clean his clock in a new special election, so don't look for Begich to do the right thing.
Stevens has become the latest symbol of how things worked at the Justice Department in the Bush administration. In fact, it's fair to say that during those eight shameful years it could more accurately be called the Miscarriage of Justice department.
The Stevens convictions for seven ethics violations clearly led to his defeat at the polls, after a 40-year career where he became one of the most powerful members of the Senate. He was unbeatable back home in Alaska, and he was steamrollered by thuggish prosecutors at Justice.
Convinced that they were all powerful, they didn't even really bother to properly conceal their contempt for rules based on a presumption of innocence (you remember that one, don't you?). Their violations of fundamental decency were so blatant that they violated rule number one, which is "Don't Get Caught." Their tactics were such a public embarrassment that the new attorney general decided that the case should be dropped. The judge has agreed and threw out the case. But obviously the irreparable damage to Stevens was done.
Now the A-G will have to work on restoring credibility to his government lawyers, whose job it is to convict the bad guys. The problem is that they need to play fair as they try and convince juries that their defendants really are bad guys. All too often they do not. In their zeal, they become convinced that legal technicalities and constitutional protections get in the way of their battles to preserve Good over Evil. In the process, they become the bad guys.
What is not clear is whether Attorney General Holder wants to simply get rid of this problem or really address it. The truth is that this extends far beyond the federal government. We need to rein in prosecutors at all levels. They can be unstoppable, what with a grand jury system that relies on a low standard of "probable cause" to indict anyone.
True, indictment is not conviction, but it is a legal action against an individual that has devastating consequences in and of itself. Prosecutors can and do abuse the system. Their reasons range from ambition to personal vendettas to misguided "law and order" beliefs. Can we forget the Duke University lacrosse team debacle? I hope not.
They even have their own propaganda, that long-running TV show Law and Order. It is very effective in the way it celebrates district attorneys as heroes, routinely hamstrung by devious defense lawyers and their obviously despicable criminal clients. It may be shown in color, but it portrays the whole system in simple-minded black and white.
The argument is frequently made that there have to be strong weapons to use in the fight against crime. No doubt about it. But the challenge of our system is to maintain public safety while, at the same time, preserving the protections that are at the very heart of this American experiment.
Anything less is dictatorship. What happened with Sen. Stevens can happen to any of us if we are not very careful. While we won't see a new election in Alaska, what is even more vital is action against these renegade Justice Department lawyers.
The judge has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the prosecutors to see if they should face criminal charges of their own. At the very least, disbarment proceedings should be considered.
While we're at it, let's consider sanctions against the other attorneys at Justice who stand accused of knowingly distorting the laws about torture. Obviously no action should be taken until all their rights have been protected, something that didn't always seem to concern them
The message needs to be sent that the power of the United States is based on a need to recognize its tradition of limitations. Otherwise, what's the point?
Meanwhile, Alaska joins Illinois in having members of the U.S. Senate who got there in questionable ways. As for Democrats, who are so hell-bent on creating as big a majority as they possibly can, they should be embarrassed. Of course they won't be. In politics, power easily trumps embarrassment. It's not a concern.
But self-preservation is, and now that one of their own elected officials was unelected, they might want to pay attention to make sure that they too are not also dispatched in such a cavalier way. It can happen to them. And, oh yeah, to the rest of us.
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I grew up in Alaska, Mr. Franken. And I do not hesitate to quote Ana Marie Cox who said the only difference in Mr. Stevens' resume today is that he is now an "unconvicted" crook. It may be that the evidence against him is now so tainted that a second trial would be impossible, but to overturn his conviction out of hand is as deep a violation of the rule of law as the prosecutorial misconduct you decry.
Perhaps you hoped to find a sympathetic audience here by referring to the DOJ under Bush as "the Miscarriage of Justice" -- most of us would agree, muddled though your argument is with a generic indictment of district attorneys and grand juries (that is to say, painting with a very, very large brush) . But Ted Stevens is a poor poster child for the misconduct of that department and your piece is remarkably devoid of any mention of Don Siegelman (or, as another poster noted, Paul Minor). Further, your comparison of Mark Begich to Roland Burris is criminal in itself.
While it is true that we must be vigilant against an overweening legal system, I can only conclude from your piece that we are only to do so when a Republican has been "wronged".
Bob, it was a rush to judgement and a rather questionable attorney that overstepped his job. Nobody said that this corrupt ted stevens was or is innocent. Seeing what we do with Alaska politics, Stevens could be re-elected and that would be a shame. He did bring home pork by the millions tho and that is always well received. Begich seems like a slimey arrogant opportunist and why shouldn't he be just like the rest of the politicians from Alaska.
The attorneys involved were career appointees who have been with the Justice department for a long time. Can you imagine what would have happened if Bush had got involved in a way that helped Stevens? There is a long history of Federal prosecutors overstepping as was the case with the investigation of Rove and Libby.
I don't think I've heard anyone say he is "innocent" of the charges, let alone not guilty.
"But self-preservation is, and now that one of their own elected officials was unelected, they might want to pay attention to make sure that they too are not also dispatched in such a cavalier way."
Where were you when the Supreme Court appointed Bush to the presidency?
With the Bu$h administration prosecuting one of their own, one must ask, "At what point was the fix in?" On a related issue, I presume Mr. Coleman will, per Bob Franken, "do the right thing," step aside, and let Sen. Al Franken take his seat in the Senate.
Nice try Bob...but no cigar.
You were not there for Don Siegelman and no one is saying Stevens is innocent.
He is still a crook and who knows, maybe this was a ploy all along so that Stevens wouldnt ever have to do time in prison.
I believe the DOJ of the Bush administration fumbled this intenionally, knowing what the results would be if there was a Democratic president.
Ted Stevens belongs in jail but intentional prosecutorial mis-conduct allows the former senator to live out his life a free man. He should shut up and be grateful for the prosecutors who will take the fall for him.
Another article appears here on HuffPo, in which the idea that Mr. Stevens' case, being wrecked by prosecutorial misconduct, has been closed, somehow means the guy ought to get his Senate seat back. I cannot remember any such article regarding Gary Condit. Nor do I see here any proof that Stevens did not do what he was accused of doing. Only that his prosecutors could not bring themselves to behave within the law, and withheld evidence from the defense. If Stevens therefore deserves his senate seat back, then I eagerly awaut reports of the author's attempts, with a shovel and a flashlight, to break Don Siegelman out of prison.
Holder made a mistake in not electing to retry, because it has allowed an opening for Stevens' defenders to go overboard in response, as is the case here.
Amazing too that of all the instances where Bush's justice thugs have run roughshod over law and decency, that this is the case from which all the howling regarding injustice emanates. Sort of like how the only ironclad contract in America is between investment banks and their bonus-receiving executives. And yet, the contracts between labor and management regarding wages, healthcare and pension, sadly cannot be enforced.
The overclass cannot see injustice anywhere it does not believe itself to be a victim.
Mr. Franken, really, all that consternation over poor mistreated Senator Stevens?
I Don't remember all of this when former Gov. Don siegelmen was actually imprisoned over a trumped up politically motivated prosecution. In fact I would wager to say the the vast majority of Americans are completely unaware of that case. If this is how the Bush administration Department of Justice treated their own ideological soul-mate, doesn't it beg the question how many misguided and malicious prosecutions have been effectively covered up? Once again the public is left with a media pundit eager to point out the toxicity and corruption that ruled this nation over the course of the last decade but takes absolutely no personal responsibility for the enabling of it. No demand of accountability lest it validate those, who for that entire time, were vilified, smeared and systematically targeted for attempting to stand up to it. Instead we get yet another self justifying talking head who seeks to blame it on the current administration (with its whole 70 days to take care of it) for somehow doing something wrong. A spin doctor who suggests that by going to the voting booth and rejecting the tyrannical flawed and poisonous ideals that assumed absolute authority over the American people, the political party that represented that should get a "Do over" because somehow the electorate was flawed in their assessment.
Or when Paul Minor was pretty much tried and convicted for being a big donor to the Democratic party. And the court won't even give him compassionate leave to visit his terminally ill wife.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001343
“As for Democrats, who are so hell-bent on creating as big a majority as they possibly can, they should be embarrassed.”
Like Hell. The Democrats should be embarrassed by their efforts to wrest control of the federal government from the Luddite Republicans about as much as the passengers of flight 93 would have been of their efforts to re-take the cockpit.
Just because the prosecutors are guilty of various sins does NOT mean Stevens is innocent of his particular crimes. As the title to your essay alludes, you have mistaken America’s premise to be “Law and Order” when, in fact, it is Freedom and Justice. Let Justice prevail.
Exactly. Where does being embarrassed come from anyway? A Bush court, a Bush ally and an Obama AG seeing injustice and doing something about it. Doesn't add up to that quoted statement does it? Thanks Steepbumps. Justice comes sometimes even to the corrupt.
"It won't happen but it should. Democratic Senator Mark Begich of Alaska won't step aside, but he should. Chances are, former Senator Ted Stevens would clean his clock in a new special election, so don't look for Begich to do the right thing."
why didn't Bush step down in that contested election in 2000 and have a special election? It would have been the "right thing"
The problems of prosecutors who feel they are not bound by the law is a serious one. Rolando Cruz spent more than a decade on death row because police and prosecutors recognizing they had a weak case against him manufactured more evidence.
But Stevens is not a particularly good candidate for the poster boy for this cause. Cruz was innocent of the crime he was convicted of. Stevens admitted making use of large gifts from people he was helping financially through legislative action. That may not be enough for a criminal conviction (although mostly because the evidence was tainted by prosecutorial misconduct than because it was inaccurate) but there are no similar rules for political losses.
Begich was actually ahead in that race before the convictions came down. The idea that Begich should step down because the Bush Administration was incompetent in its prosecutions seems an odd one.
And as Colbert correctly pointed out last night, those people who have been railroaded by the system will benefit not having Stephens in office voting to take protections away from the accused.
Embarassed? Are you kidding. While the Republicans use all kinds of hijinks to keep the duly elected Senator from MN, Al Franken, out of officer, Democrats are supposed to somehow belly up to the bar and play nice but unelecting the duly elected Senator from Alaska? What are you smoking. It's the Republicans who ran roughshod over justice for 8 years. Then one of theirs got hoisted by his own petard. Now you're saying, "Okay, Democrats you should be embarrased?"
What are you smoking?
If Franken becomes senator from MN it will not be because how the votes were cast, but rather how the votes were counted.
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