Justice Department prosecutors evidently ran amok in their zeal to convict Alaska Senator Ted Stevens of wrongdoing. The prosecutorial misconduct was so great that new Attorney General Eric Holder decided to drop all charges. This doesn’t mean, of course, that Stevens was innocent. We’ll never really know how extensive his abuse of office might have been. One has to wonder if the Bush administration’s politicization of the department and lax oversight didn’t create an atmosphere in which prosecutors felt empowered to cut corners in their efforts to gain convictions. Remember, this happened in the waning days of the Bush era, after the blatant attempts replace skilled attorneys with political cronies created a scandal that destroyed the morale of the department as well as a number of careers. In this case, the disregard for professionalism may well have backfired on Republicans; one of their own fell in the process.

Topics: Alaska, Attorney General, bridge to nowhere, Eric Holder, Justice department, prosecutorial misconduct, Senate, Ted Stevens