The Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz describes how Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley "fought so relentlessly" to maintain a case against the Amirault family. Yet the Democratic Senate candidate was far from relentless when investigating fellow politicians.
For those of you unfamiliar:
The Amirault case was one of many cases stemming from the 80's day-care child sex-abuse hysteria. Like Janet Reno, Coakley psychologically tortured small children into imaging all sorts of outrageous allegations such as being sodomized with lobsters and raped in the middle of the street as cars drove past.
Even when the parole board UNANIMOUSLY recommended release for Amirault Coakley kept him in the gulag to protect her professional reputation.
Paul Kix of Boston magazine recently profiled the woman vying to fill the people's seat formerly occupied by Ted Kennedy.
A nice little rhetorical flourish, borrowing Brown repudiation of Gerghan's subliminal nudge towards the democrat.
Mr. Kix reports that "the three biggest public-corruption cases of the past three years—the only three that anyone remembers—saw her sitting on the sidelines."
The author notes that indictments of former Massachusetts House Speaker Sal DiMasi, state Senator Dianne Wilkerson and Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner were all brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office, not Ms. Coakley. The feds charged Mr. DiMasi with allegedly taking payments for advancing state software contracts, and made a bribery case against the others.
Writes Mr. Kix, "The FBI had video proof of Wilkerson stuffing bribe money into her bra. Coakley did nothing. The [Boston] Globe and Secretary of State William Galvin hammered DiMasi and his (allegedly) shady friends for 14 months. And the best Coakley could do was indict DiMasi's golfing buddy Richard Vitale? On misdemeanor charges?"
"Coakley has done an intricate little dance these past few years," adds the author. "When the big-name prey wields statewide political clout (DiMasi), or represents a key minority group (Wilkerson), Coakley defers, staying popular at the State House in the process. Today more than 80 state legislators have lent her their full support."
Ms. Coakley's Republican opponent, Scott Brown, has presented his campaign as a rejection of the state's machine politics. The Boston magazine report may help explain why Mr. Brown's message is resonating with Bay state voters.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703657604575005513996542830.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
