Wash Post: US Atty Biskupic Kept Job Through Hill Politics

GOP Voter-Fraud Complaints Drove US Atty Dismissals
Madison, Wisconsin—Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein of the Post spell out the politicalization of the DoJ process on the US Attys fired or nearly fired.
“Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.
“Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.
“It has been clear for months that the administration's eagerness to launch voter-fraud prosecutions played a role in some of the firings, but recent testimony, documents and interviews show the issue was more central than previously known. The new details include the names of additional prosecutors who were targeted and other districts that were of concern, as well as previously unknown information about the White House's role.
“U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic of Milwaukee also was targeted last fall after complaints from Rove that he was not doing enough about voter fraud. But he was spared because Justice officials feared that removing him might cause political problems on Capitol Hill, according to interviews of Justice aides conducted by congressional staff members.”
Biskupic’s conduct on voter fraud, public corruption cases, and the prosecution of a veteran unpopular with the politicized VA match precisely the agenda of the Bush administration.
That should be ironic to the flacks who call Biskupic the “antithesis” of a politician.
Update: From Xoff at Uppity Wisconsin.
Xoff reads Mike Nichols' take of the Georgia Thompson prosecution in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"Granted, the prosecution of Thompson, the purchasing official in the Doyle Administration, was a bust.

Being a political creature like Thompson, it turns out, is not a crime.
But you have to admire a prosecutor who starts from the premise that it might be."

Writes Xoff:

Really? You have to admire Biskupic for prosecuting an innocent woman, sending her to prison and ruining her life?

You see, Georgia Thompson was not “a political creature,” as Nichols would have it, by any stretch of the imagination. She had a long career in the travel industry before joining state government in a non-political civil service position. She was hired by the administration of Republican Gov. Scott McCallum. As a 'career executive, her position was protected from political interference.

Biskupic accused her of steering a state travel contract to a company whose president was a supporter, friend and donor to Gov. Jim Doyle. But testimony said she was not even aware of the contributions, and there was no evidence that anyone asked her to favor that company.

Nonetheless, she was convicted and sent to prison without even being allowed to remain free while pursuing her appeal.

Four months later, an incredulous federal appeals court ordered her freed the same day it heard the oral arguments. The reason: She has not committed a crime, and Biskupic had offered no evidence to support his theory that she had.

Nichols would have us admire Biskupic for thinking she might have committed a crime.

What, exactly, is it that we should admire about that?

Amen.