Wampum

Last week, in my piece on Lawrence Walsh and the Iran-Contra investigations, I referenced the tremendous character assination Walsh endured throughout his six years on the trail, by both those politicians who felt threatened, but by large sections of the media as well. As Robert Parry wrote (and I quoted previously, but will again for emphasis):

"Loser" is only one of the epithets that the D.C. press corps has hurled at Walsh since he indicted former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger a year ago. In journal after influential journal, the eighty-one-year-old ex-federal judge has been likened to Captains Ahab and Queeg, Victor Hugo's Inspector Javert, Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, and even the Inquisition's Torquemada. The trashing of Lawrence Walsh has become a journalistic cottage industry--and has put the press in the disturbing role of objecting to discovery of the truth.

Washington's overt hostility to the investigation, as evidenced in commentaries by liberals as well as conservatives, has even contributed to the success of the Reagan-Bush administrations' long- running cover-up. The assaults on Walsh have served as a kind of peer-group enforcement mechanism that has limited his investigation's options.

James Brosnahan, the San Francisco trial attorney who moved to Washington last fall to prosecute Weinberger (before Bush pardoned him), came to see the unrelenting attacks against Walsh as part of the obstruction of justice. "It was all so transparent that I was disappointed more people didn't pick up on the fact that all they were really trying to do was obstruct the trial of Weinberger," he says.

One of my greatest concerns regarding the Plame leak investigations is that Fitzgerald will also succumb to the firestorm which is sure to surround him if and when he announces indictments against Administration muckety-mucks. Already, the Republican long-knives appear to be pulling out their whetstones. A positive sign, however, is this article from the Times (however tainted they are by their own behavior in this case):

Leak Prosecutor Is Called Exacting and Apolitical
By SCOTT SHANE and DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - In 13 years prosecuting mobsters and terrorists in New York, Patrick J. Fitzgerald earned a public reputation for meticulous preparation, a flawless memory and an easy eloquence. Only his colleagues knew that these orderly achievements emerged from the near-total anarchy of his office, where the relentless Mr. Fitzgerald often slept during big cases.

"You'd open a drawer, looking for a pen or Post-it notes, and it would be full of dirty socks," recalled Karen Patton Seymour, a former assistant United States attorney who tried a major case with him. "He was a mess. Food here, clothes there, papers everywhere. But behind all that was a totally organized mind."

That mind, which has taken on Al Qaeda and the Gambino crime family, is now focused on the most politically volatile case of Mr. Fitzgerald's career. As the special prosecutor who has directed the C.I.A. leak investigation, he is expected to decide within days who, if anyone, will be charged with a crime.

To seek indictments against the White House officials caught up in the inquiry would deliver a devastating blow to the Bush administration. To simply walk away after two years of investigation, which included the jailing of a reporter for 85 days for refusing to testify, would invite cries of cover-up and waste.

Yet Mr. Fitzgerald's past courtroom allies and adversaries say that consideration of political consequences will play no role in his decision.

"I don't think the prospect of a firestorm would deter him," said J. Gilmore Childers, who worked with Mr. Fitzgerald on high-profile terrorism prosecutions in New York during the 1990s. "His only calculus is to do the right thing as he sees it."

While I was researching the earlier post, I did took a look at Fitzgerald's political contributions over at Opensecrets.org. Fitzgeralds contributions over the past 10 years amounted to $1250, both to Republicans in local Congressional races.

10/29/2004, $1,000, Mark Kirk
1/24/2000, $250, Timothy V Johnson

In contrast, here are the political contributions of another famous federal prosecuter, Kenneth Starr:

6/23/2004, $5,000, National Republican Senatorial Cmte
4/4/2004, $1,000, Allen, George
3/12/2004, $250, Republican Party of Virginia
9/4/2003, $1,000, Hastert, Dennis
8/14/2003, $1,000, National Conservative Campaign Fund
6/12/2003, $2,000, Bush, George W
10/21/2002, $920, Finley, Joseph P
9/3/2002, $500, Allen, George
6/22/2001, $250, Forbes, J Randy
5/2/2002, $1,000, Jorgensen, Jay Thomas
2/13/2002, $1,000, Warner, John W
5/17/2001, $1,000, Davis, Tom
10/30/2000, $1,000, Republican National Cmte
5/21/1994, $1,000, Davis, Thomas M
3/7/1994, $1,000, Miller, James Clifford III
2/19/1994, $250, McIntosh, David M
2/10/1994, $500, McSlarrow, Kyle Eugene
12/14/1993, $1,000, Davis, Thomas M
11/19/1993, $1,000, Ashcroft, John
8/14/1993, $500, McSlarrow, Kyle Eugene

Total: $21,170.00

Republican talking heads need to remember that number should they claim Fitzgerald to be a liberal hack.