Political profiling?

The underlying allegation in the US Attorneys controversy is that US Attorneys were encouraged by the Bush administration to investigate and prosecute Democrats and discouraged from doing so with Republicans.

Now…some data as to that charge.

Professors Emeritus Donald C. Shields of the University of Missouri – St. Louis and John F. Cragan of Illinois State University have published excerpts of A STUDY OF THE BUSH JUSTICE DEPATMENT which presents data of U.S. Attorneys’ federal investigations and/or indictments of 375 elected officials.

Their conclusion is that the Bush Justice Department, particularly when it comes to probes of local officials, is engaging in "political profiling."

Comparing the party affiliation among local officials — 50% Dem, 41% GOP, and 9% Ind.– with the prosecution rate, the professors conclude that Bush-appointed "U.S. Attorneys across the nation investigate seven (7) times as many Democratic officials as they investigate Republican officials, a number that exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops."

With statewide officials, the ratio is close — 36 Democrats and 30 Republicans (Appendix B). With local offices the disparity is much greater — 262 Democrats to 37 Republicans (Appendix C:)
This makes a total of 298 Democratic officials investigated for 67 Republicans.

"We believe that this tremendous disparity is politically motivated and it occurs because the local (non-statewide and non-Congressional) investigations occur under the radar of a diligent national press," the study states. "Each instance is treated by a local beat reporter as an isolated case that is only of local interest. The real Pulitizer Prize-winning story is the extent of the politicization of Justice Department investigations and/or indictments of local elected and office-seeking Democrats vis-a-vis their Republican counterparts across the nation."

Comments?

– jt