Harper's Magazine On Political Prosecutions

Scott Horton's treatment of Bush administration plans to make campaign finance life difficult for John Edwards and his supporters is a hefty indictment paired with a troubling revelation.

Published via Harper's in September 22's No Comment, the column details how Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were pegged early on as likely trouble centers for Republicans in 2008. John Edwards was singled out, and plans to mount aggressive attacks on the campaign's finance efforts were put together. From within the Justice Department:

The project identified John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as likely Democratic challengers to President Bush, and identified prominent trial lawyers around the United States as the likely financial vehicle for Edward’s rise. It directed that their campaign finance records be fly-specked, and that offenses not be treated as administrative matters but rather as serious criminal offenses.

The scheme contemplated among other things that raids be staged on the law offices involved, and that the records seized not be limited to campaign finance—there was an acute interest in all politically oriented documents, in order to seize valuable intelligence on strategic planning from the enemy camp.

It isn't that stories like this surprise me. The second I started reading, I used my context clues like any good student and drew the conclusion that this was upper echelon stuff. So when Horton later details that Ashcroft and Gonzales knew all about these hijinx, I was also not surprised. In fact, I would have been surprised had it been any other way.

So, I am not surprised this kind of stuff has happened in and around the White House. I guess, at this late date and in full view of the sinking ship of the Bush administration, my only surprise is that it has taken this long for stories like this — with the meaty details — to really start coming out.

Sure, we know the Rove used government resources for political means. Yes, we know something bad was happening at Justice on many different days and many different issues. But details like this are so visceral and keen, they give the otherwise already cynical observer a real view on what the bad guys have been doing when they should have been watching the national store. And it is depressing. The Horton piece should be a good entry point for you if you are looking for other avenues of research.