A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

I recognize that this week may see indictments of Karl Rove and/or Scooter Libby. And I recognize that this may cause some Republicans--even a few who work in the White House--to decide that they should do to Patrick Fitzgerald what Democrats did to Ken Starr.

Bad move. Both Patrick Fitzgerald and Ken Starr (Full Disclosure: Ken Starr is the Dean of my law school though he was not Dean when I was there. He is also an extremely nice guy and I know that because I have met him) are honorable people and excellent attorneys. Fitzgerald is a career prosecutor and well-equipped to carry out just about any investigation. If Osama bin Laden ever stands trial, I can assure people that you want Fitzgerald to be the prosecutor who will take him down. This is a man who was responsible for the convictions of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman after the 1993 World Trade Center bomging. This is a man who was responsible for the prosecutions against the Gambino family. This is a man who can't receive mail at his home because a piece of mail might be a letter bomb. And yet he works and perseveres as a prosecutor. And loves his job too. All of our public officials should be so devoted to duty.

So I am with Blanton. Lay off Fitzgerald and let the chips fall where they may. No one is perfect and everyone has to be held to account, but so long as Patrick Fitzgerald continues to run a professional investigation, he should be afforded the respect he deserves. There is no reason to run the kind of slime operation that made life so difficult for Ken Starr and his operation (and yes, I know that because he was not a career prosecutor, Ken Starr made a number of mistakes in his investigation. That did not justify the defamation campaign led against him). We should be better than that.