NYT: G.O.P. Anger in Swing State Eased Attorney’s Exit

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/washington/18attorneys.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

G.O.P. Anger in Swing State Eased Attorney’s Exit


By CHRISTOPHER DREW and ERIC LIPTON
Published: March 18, 2007

snip//

Mr. Iglesias defended his handling of the vote-fraud and other investigations, saying his critics did not have access to the findings that guided his decisions. He says the attacks occurred because state Republican leaders felt betrayed, figuring “We helped the guy get the position, he owes us some kind of fealty.”

Mr. Iglesias said he had believed that his bosses shared his view that United States attorneys should stay above the fray. “I thought I was insulated from politics,” he said in an interview. “But now I find out that main Justice was up to its eyeballs in partisan political maneuvering.”

Since his ouster, Mr. Iglesias has received support from other federal prosecutors, who say the department failed to honor its obligation to ensure that decisions about prosecutions are free of political taint.

“People who understand the history and the mission of the United States attorney and Justice Department — they are uniformly appalled, horrified,” said Atlee W. Wampler III, chairman of a national organization of former United States attorneys and a prosecutor who served in the Carter and Reagan administrations. “That the tradition of the Justice Department could have been so warped by that kind of action — any American should be disturbed.”

Senator Domenici recommended Mr. Iglesias, now 49, for his federal post in 2001. An aide to the senator spotted him as a up-and-comer a few years earlier — Mr. Iglesias was Hispanic, a conservative former state prosecutor and he had pizazz. As a Navy lawyer, he had been involved in a marine hazing case that became the basis for the blockbuster movie “A Few Good Men.”

At first, Mr. Iglesias focused on immigration and gun offenses and crime on Indian reservations.

But in 2004, the suspicious voter-registration cards put him into one of the country’s most heated political issues. (At least one other recently ousted United States attorney, John McKay of Seattle, said he believed that Bush administration officials were similarly angry that he had not prosecuted voter fraud cases involving Democrats.

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[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Rules need to be rewritten so that Iglesia's view of objectivity, is the

only right one. This cronyistic, patronage method we currently have, is going to lead us to anarchy.

[The Doctor.]

2. When barred from legal recourse,

justice can only be obtained by outlaws.

Let's hope it never comes to that.