No Politics Involved

The Senate Democrats, now wanting to wring politics into any type of prosecution by anyone appointed by George W. Bush are asking for documents in a recent Wisconsin corruuption trial.

Georgia Thompson was found guilty by a jury of rigging the bidding for a state travel contract to go to a sizeable donor to Governor Jim Doyle's campaign fund. However, an appeals court overturned the conviction last week.

Now the US Senate wants to know if politics was the reason for the investigation and trial. The problem is, the investigation was started by Wisconsin's (Democratic) Attorny General at the time, Peg Lautenschlager, not Steve Biskupic, the US Attorney who actually tried the case.

In fact, the Senators don't even need to get any documents, they could just read the e-mail from Lautenschlager's top deputy, Dan Bach, another democrat, about the case. He sent it to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, and Madison Capital Times, but neither has published any part it. Maybe because it doesn't fit into the view that Biskupic must be a political hack.

Here is part of what Bach had to say about the whole process...

I participated in several meetings with prosecutors and investigators both before and after the Thompson trial. Having spent more than a dozen years as a federal prosecutor and four more as the state deputy attorney general, I will attest that this case was handled by professional, career prosecutors and investigators in as fair, thoughtful, and apolitical fashion as any I have witnessed. In contrast, the one-sided, self-interested criticisms of the decision to prosecute stand apart in their rush to judgment.

Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who's boss lost her job in the November election, and really has nothing to gain at this point by making such statements. It's not like the new Republican AG is going to suddenly go grab him for a top post.... Though that might not be a bad idea. He's probably not going to be appoint by George Bush for a new job as a US Attorney.

So why send a letter like this, maybe he's actually interested in seeing the truth come out about the whole process, instead of listening to the politicians bloviate. It would be refreshing if that was also the politicians motive, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't.

H/T to Jeff Wagner who has the rest of Bach's letter.

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